In a week off from 5A district competition, the Durant Lion baseball team posted a pair of wins in four contests, including three in the McAlester Shootout.
Both DHS losses came to Class 2A powerhouse Tushka, as the Lions fell 9-8 and 8-0 while defeating Preston (5-1) and Class 6A Muskogee (12-9).
The Lions have another non-league matchup at home with Byng to close out this week before facing off with Booker T. Washington in a pivotal District 5A-4 series to begin next week with Tuesday’s contest at home.
Durant gave Tushka all they wanted in a road showdown early last week, scoring five unanswered runs to rally from an 8-3 deficit midway through the contest.
They scored once in the fifth as Aiden Diviney doubled and came across on Lucas McClure’s RBI single. A dramatic, two-out rally knotted the score in the seventh as Durant pushed in four runs on Elijah McClure’s grand slam home run.
Tushka answered, however, in its half of the frame, working a pair of two out bases runners ahead of a walkoff single.
The Lions bounced back with the victory over Class 2A sixth-rated Preston behind a spectacular pitching performance.
Diviney earned the victory with six strong stanzas, yielding one run on two hits while striking out eight and walking just two. Jackson Williams added a frame of spotless relief for the save.
At the plate, Diviney and Cole Robbins each doubled and tripled to spur the Durant charge. Robbins ended with three hits and drove in four runs. Ryder Jones also chipped in a pair of hits.
Coach J.W. Parsons’ squad could not get much going offensively at all in the rematch against Tushka at the McAlester event, ending with only two hits as Elijah McClure and Axel Thurman tallied one apiece.
In spite of being short handed for the week’s finale, the Lions came through with one of their best clutch hitting performances of the entire season.
Durant ended the game with only seven hits but cashed in a whopping 12 walks and five hit batters issued by Rougher pitchers to pull away for the triumph.
The score was knotted 1-1 in the third inning when the Lions responded with five runs to take command. Elijah Mc-Clure’s one-out solo homer put Durant ahead for good with a Diviney triple with the bases loaded providing a cushion.
Muskogee rallied with four runs in the fourth inning, and it went back and forth from there.
J. Jones and Williams had key run-scoring hits during a three-run fourth and following another four Rougher runs tied the contest in the fifth, Durant cashed in a walk and three hit batters to go back in front to stay.
Elijah McClure and Williams each posted two hits with Williams tallying a teamhigh three RBI.
Keyvan Dollar got the pitching start and twirled four frames in which he allowed only one earned run on six hits and fanned three. Ashton Cook snagged the victory with a perfect one and one-third frames of relief and Reid Thompson added a scoreless seventh for the save.
