Even with the move to Class 3A this season, the Silo Rebels punched their ticket for the spring state baseball tournament for the 22nd straight year with a dominant sweep of Oklahoma Christian School in Super Regional action last week.
The Rebels posted a 7-1 win in game one and finished things off with a 12-3 blasting of the Saints in the finale of the best-of-3 series to improve their season record to 25-8.
In the opener, Coach Eddie Jeffcoat’s troops plated two runs in the first inning and three more in the second before cruising the rest of the way behind a stellar pitching performance from Britton Salsbury.
The senior righthander fired a complete game while allowing one unearned run and scattering seven hits. He struck out three and walked two.
Silo only outhit the visitors 8-7 but took full advantage of four OCS errors. One of those miscues came in the first as they notched a pair aided by only one hit on a bunt from Shawn Weaver.
Three tallies in the second frame were fueled by a pair of walks, error and hits by Zane Sander and Weaver.
Sander doubled to start another two-run flurry in the fourth stanza as the Rebels cashed in singles from Sam Mendenall and Salsbury.
The Rebels got two hits apiece from Sander, Weaver and Kacey Spaulding.
Jeret House doubled home a pair of runs to get Silo on the board in the second inning of the nightcap and Spaulding chipped in an RBI double as well. After OCS knotted the score in the fourth, the Rebels put the throttle down to pull away.
The hosts picked up singles from House and Spaulding in addition to a pair of Saint errors to notch four more tallies before five runs in the seventh to cap the flurry.
House and Spaulding each contributed three hits with Sander, Mendenall, Bryce Vandenburg and Landon Langley all posting one hit.
Mendenall twirled three and one-third innings of scoreless one-hit relief to gain the pitching win.
Calera Baseball
A 7-2 loss to Central Sallisaw dropped the Bulldogs into the Class 2A regional losers bracket where they won a pair of games before bowing out short of a return to the state tournament.
Calera bounced Christian Heritage (7-4) and Coalgate (118) before the season-ending 2-1 setback to Central Sallisaw.
The Bulldogs got two hits, including a double from Logan Bumgarner, in the regional opener but five Calera errors proved costly.
Coach Ricky Teafatiller’s unit got a strong pitching effort from Bumgarner as he yielded only two hits and struck out eight over five innings for the triumph against Christian Heritage. They made the most of four hits with Bumgarner also picked up a pair, including a double, and drove in a pair.
They followed up by bouncing Coalgate in a wild contest, finally grabbing the lead for good with a five-run outburst in the sixth stanza. Talon Rose had the key hit with a two-run double as he notched a teamleading three hits.
Runs proved to be hard to come by again in the Central loss despite the Bulldogs notching eight hits. The only Calera run came on a Hazyn Applegate RBI double.
Jaron Smith and Applegate each tallied two hits.
Rock Creek Softball
In their return to the Class 2A slow pitch state tournament for the first time since 2017, the Lady Mustangs surprised third-ranked Drummond, 13-9, before bowing out with a 15-5 semifinal loss to top-rated Shattuck.
Rock Creek exploded for eight runs in the first frame of the Drummond win, cashing in a plethora of walks and single by Laynie Laymon.
Drummond narrowed the gap to 8-4 through four stanzas before the Lady Mustangs notched one in the fifth, two in the sixth and two in the seventh to seal the triumph.
Maddie Williams and Meagan Davis each tallied two hits, scored twice and drove in two apiece. Shelby Lyles had one hit and three RBI.
After plating three early runs, Rock Creek couldn’t stay with Shattuck in the semifinal round.
Three straight Shattuck errors to start the game opened the floodgates before Laney Knight and Olivia Whitaker single.
Knight finished with two of the five Rock Creek hits in the game.
