The Durant Lion baseball team inched closer to wrapping up the third-place playoff seed in District 5A-4 last week with a dominant sweep of Tulsa Rogers.
Coach J.W. Parsons’ squad ran away for the 16-1 and 16-0 triumphs over the outmatched Ropers before dropping a 13-11 decision to Byng to close out the week and move their record to 12-10 on the season.
After wrapping up the league slate early this week, the Lions will be back home to tangle with Sulphur in nondistrict action Thursday evening before traveling to Class A powerhouse Wright City on Friday afternoon. They’ll visit Antlers for the final game of the regular season on Tuesday.
It was complete domination for the Lions against Tulsa Rogers as they took command from the start in game one by plating 11 first inning runs after sending 15 batters to the plate.
A walk and three consecutive Rogers errors set the tone before Jacob Jones delivered a two-run single. Reid Thompson drove in two more with a single ahead of the first out of the frame. Aiden Diviney, Lucas McClure and Jacob Jones all doubled to push across more runs prior to the end of the inning.
Durant erupted for five more tallies in the second stanza to wrap up the scoring as Jackson Williams doubled with Ryder Jones and Lucas McClure chipping in RBI singles.
Colton Poore notched three hits to spur the 14-hit offensive charge. Jacob Jones had two hits and drove in five while Lucas McClure also had a pair of hits.
Lucas McClure fired the first three frames on the mound to pick up the pitching triumph, scattering three hits while striking out six and walking a pair. Ashton Cook tossed in two innings of relief, allowing one unearned run on five hits.
It was the second inning of the second game that broke it wide open for the Lions as they plated 10 runs to build a commanding 12-0 edge.
Ryder Jones tossed in a double and single in the 10-run burst with Keyvan Dollar also chipping in a pair of hits.
The Lions posted 12 hits with Diviney, Ryder Jones, Dollar and Axel Thurman all contributing two hits.
Diviney tossed three scoreless frames for the win and combined with Williams and Thompson on a no hitter.
Durant kept the offensive burst in motion in scoring 11 runs on 10 hits against Byng, but couldn’t fully recover from a 5-0 deficit after two stanzas despite a monster offensive showing from Cole Robbins.
The junior stalwart blasted three home runs in five at bats and drove in seven runs. Holdan Robinson also tallied three hits and one RBI but no other Lion had more than one hit in the game with a late, final-inning flurry coming up just short.
Ryder Jones, Lucas McClure, Poore and Dollar pitched in one hit apiece.