TULSA - The Henryetta Golden Knights failed to begin their 2019 varsity baseball season on a winning note, suffering a 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Lincoln Christian Bulldogs.
TULSA - The Henryetta Golden Knights failed to begin their 2019 varsity baseball season on a winning note, suffering a 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Lincoln Christian Bulldogs.
The season-opening loss came last Friday afternoon at the Lincoln Christian ballfield.
The Knights returned to action last Saturday with a trip to Beggs for a county showdown with the host Beggs Golden Demons. (See 1B for complete results of Saturday's road game in Beggs.)
The Henryetta diamond squad was in Dewar on Tuesday for a county battle with the Dewar Dragons and will open the home portion of their 2019 schedule Thursday, taking on the Eufaula Ironheads.
The Knights will also be home Friday afternoon, taking on the Haskell Haymakers.
In last Friday's season opener against Lincoln Christian, the host Bulldogs got the scoring started with a run in the home half of the first. Lincoln Christian increased its lead to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the last of the second.
The Knights broke up the shutout bid with a run in the top of the third, cutting the deficit to two, 3-1, after two and one-half innings of action.
The score remained at 3-1, in favor of Lincoln Christian, until the bottom of the fifth when the host Bulldogs plated a run to regain their 3-run lead, 4-1, after five innings.
Lincoln Christian tacked on a pair of insurance runs in its half of the sixth for a 6-1 advantage, heading into the final frame of regulation.
The Henryetta diamond squad pushed across one run in the top of the seventh and loaded the bases with one out in the inning.
The seventh-inning rally attempt came up short for the Knights, as the final two batters were retired to leave the bases loaded and the Henryetta squad on the short end of a 6-2 decision.
Offensively, the Knights were limited to five base hits in the opener. Four of the five HHS hits came from the first two batters in the lineup - Drew Brown and Brodie Graffman. Brown went 2 for 2 with a pair of singles, while drawing walks in his other two plate appearances, while Graffman was 2 for 4 at the plate with a pair of singles.
The other base hits for the Knights in the season opener came on a single by Jeremiah Boyles.
Besides Brown's two walks, the only other baserunners for Henryetta were Tate Wisdom and Lance Gouge with walks.
Jared Montgomery worked the first three innings on the mound for Henryetta, absorbing the pitching loss in the season opener. Montgomery gave up three runs on three hits in three innings of work, striking out eight, walking two, and hitting a batter.
Graffman took over in the fourth, allowing three runs on three hits with one strikeout, five walks, and one hit batsman in three innings of relief work.
