Battling a pair of top state baseball tournament contenders in the Cleveland County Shootout last week, the Durant Lions found the going tough while dropping two non-district contests.
The Lions had their chances against Class 5A Noble, rallying from an early 5-0 deficit, but the Bears pulled it out 7-6 with a pair of tallies in the bottom of the seventh inning. Durant then ran into a buzz saw in 6A Choctaw while dropping a 13-1 verdict.
Coach Jimmie Wyrick’s squad was slated to return to District 5A-4 action with key battles against Coweta before another daunting task in the Annual Bixby/Broken Arrow Turf Wars over the weekend.
Five unearned runs by Noble in the second inning staked the Bears to the edge in that 5A battle of teams that reached last year’s state tournament, but the Lions found their offense to rally.
Durant plated five runs in the fourth stanza after loading the bases with a Graham McIlvoy double sandwiched around two walks. Eli McClure singled home the first two and Jacob Jones chipped in another hit to drive in another.
Cole Robbins hit into a fielder’s choice that added the fourth RBI and Colton Poore scored on a wild pitch to knot the score.
Lucas McClure and Jackson Williams continued to stymie the Bear bats over the middle innings and Durant claimed its first lead in the fifth when Holdan Robinson walked and came all the way around on a Noble throwing error.
The Lions looked like they would hold on for the win with two outs in the seventh and nobody on base but a single and error opened the door for what proved to be a Noble walk off comeback.
Robbins, Jared Avalos, McIlvoy and Jones each notched two hits in the Durant 10-hit attack.
Facing the big bats of Choctaw, the Lions were blitzed from the start as the Yellowjackets pushed across 11 runs in the first frame and never looked back.
Durant’s offense was limited to only two hits which came via an Avalos double and Robbins single.
