It will be another Bryan County reunion this week at the Class 2A State Baseball Tournament with nearly half the field made up from the area.
Silo, Colbert and Calera all won regional championships last week to punch their ticket to the event. It will be Silo’s 15th straight fall tournament trip while Calera advanced for the third consecutive time and Colbert for the second year in a row.
First and second round contests will be held at Yukon High School with the championship set for Bricktown Ballpark.
Silo had no problem in consecutive 15-0 run rule verdicts over The Academy from Oklahoma City and Colbert dispatched visiting Vanoss by 6-5 and 8-4 counts. Calera meanwhile was forced on the road and was able to handle defending fall state champ Byng for narrow 2-1 and 7-6 wins.
Silo Rebels
In the regional opener, Rebel pitchers Aiden McCarty and Warner Bradley combined on a four-inning no hitter as they struck out seven Griffins and walked two.
Silo plated five runs in the first stanza, six in the second and another four in the third to roll behind 11 hits.
Brycen Salsbury homered and knocked in three runs with Bradley also contributing two doubles and three RBI. Jacob Wright and Cannon Atwood each had a double as part of their two hits apiece as Peyton Scoggin also notched one hit and drove in three.
Game two was much the same story as the duo of Blane Beauchamp and Doc Nuffer combined for the no-hitter, each firing two innings and tallying six strikeouts.
Five of the nine Silo hits went for doubles which came from Salsbury, Wright, Nolan Northcott, Scoggin and Bradley.
Silo pushed across four runs in the first stanza and then broke it wide open with a nine-run second frame. Atwood, Bradley and Salsbury had one hit and two RBI each. Wright, Northcott, Ty Hatley, McCarty, Scoggin and Mason Wright all posted one hit.
Colbert Leopards
Coach Zach Crabtree’s club trailed 4-3 through five innings of the opener against Vanoss before pushing across three in its final at bat in the sixth stanza.
Ladd walked, Brewer Crabtree singled and both rode home on Ian nJordan’s goahead double to center field. Eric Hokett also contributed a two-out RBI double for insurance.
That proved to be plenty of cushion for Isaiah Lopez, who went the pitching distance without yielding an earned run. He scattered five hits, struck out eight and walked one.
Jordan and Lopez each tallied a pair of hits, including a double apiece, with Jordan driving in three.
Garrett Swindall was the offensive story of game two with four singles and two RBI in five at bats.
Colbert plated a run in the second inning and three in the fourth to take control while cruising to victory with Parker Ladd and Dalton Cummins combining to scatter seven hits and struck out seven on the mound. Kevin Davis and Crabtree notched two hits and drove in one apiece.
Calera Bulldogs
The Bulldogs managed just three hits in the Byng opening contest but it proved to be just enough in a pitcher’s duel.
Nathaniel Hallmark twirled the first five innings for Calera, yielding one run on four hits with five strikeouts and four walks, before Hoff Weil tallied two scoreless frames of relief for the save.
Byng led 1-0 through one stanza but the Bulldogs answered with two in the second frame that proved to be all the scoring for the game. Demarcus Dunn reached on an error and Aidan Reiber singled ahead of a game-tying two-out bunt single from Brayden Whitfield. Blake Basham then scored on the back end of a double steal to give Calera the lead.
Weil, Reiber and Whitfield had singles for the Bulldogs.
Calera erupted for five runs in the third inning of game two before holding on for their lives. Weil doubled and Hallmark singled in between walks to plate the first run and Dunn knocked in two more on a double. Harlem McBath followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0 and Reiber singled home the final tally of the frame.
The host Pirates rallied to tie the score at 6 in the top of the seventh but Maddox Bumgarner worked out of any further damage to give Calera a chance in the bottom of the inning.
Three walks loaded the bases with Bulldogs and Paden popped a fly ball to center field for the game-winning sacrifice fly.
McBath, Weil and Bumgarner combined to yield nine hits, struck out seven and walked five with Bumgarner earning the pitching win.
Weil topped the offensive charge with three hits, including a double. Sweeney and Dunn each posted one hit and two RBI.
