HENRYETTA - The Henryetta Golden Knight varsity baseball team found themselves in two tough battles here recently.

The Knights notched a thrilling 8-7 victory over the visiting Kiefer Trojans March 22, scoring the game-winning run on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly out in the bottom of the seventh.

Three days later, the Henryetta squad hosted 3A No. 4 Beggs and took the talented Demon squad nine innings before a winner was determined. Beggs tallied two runs in the top of the ninth, then held the Knights in the home half of the inning to hand the Henryetta diamond squad the heartbreaking 9-7 defeat.

The Knights competed last Thursday-Saturday at the annual Weleetka Baseball Tournament.

Henryetta took home the consolation championship at Weleetka, rebounding from a 4-0 loss to Depew to earn wins over Okmulgee (11-1) and Weleetka (11-3), respectively.

The Knights were back in action Monday evening with a road trip to Okmulgee for a rematch with the Okmulgee Bulldogs (See 1B for complete details) and traveled to Beggs Tuesday to battle the Preston Pirates in their second-straight county contest of the week.

The Henryetta squad will close out this week's schedule at the 35th Annual Joe Fowler Gumbo Classic in Dewar. The Knights will begin tournament play Thursday at 8 p.m. against Kiefer. A win over the Trojans will put the Henryetta squad into the tournament semifinals Friday at 8 p.m. while a loss to Kiefer Thursday will drop the Knights into the consolation semifinals Friday at 2 p.m.

In the March 22 home battle with Kiefer, the visitors broke the scoreless tie with a pair of runs in the top of the second, then doubled their lead to 4-0 with two runs in their half of the fourth.

The Knights broke up the Trojans' shutout bid with two runs in the home half of the fourth, then plated four runs in the last of the fifth for a 6-4 advantage after five innings of action.

Both teams managed one run in their half of the sixth to send the contest to the final inning of regulation with Henryetta still in front by two, 7-5.

Kiefer knotted the score at 7-7 with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh.

The Knights began the bottom of the seventh with Ethan Palmer reaching on a single. Jean Pixler followed with a well-placed bunt single to put the winning run in scoring position.

Kiefer was unable to field Lance Gouge's sacrifice bunt attempt cleanly, loading the bases with no outs.

Henryetta leadoff hitter Drew Brown drove a pitch deep to right field, scoring Palmer from third on the game-ending sacrifice fly, giving the Knights the thrilling 8-7 victory.

Brown worked the final two innings in relief to earn the pitching win for Henryetta. The senior right-hander allowed two runs on three hits, striking out two and walking one in his relief appearance.

Brown took over on the mound with a runner on base, no outs, and a 2-1 count in the top of the sixth, taking over for starter Jared Montgomery, who worked five-plus innnings, giving up five runs on five hits with three strikeouts, one walk, and a hit batsman.

The big hit for the Knights against Kiefer came in the sixth inning when Ethan Wincle blasted a solo home run to put the Henryetta squad in front 7-5.

Besides the singles by Palmer and Pixler in the seventh, the other Henryetta base hits in the contest came on a single by Montgomery, RBI singles by Brown and Andrew Morris, and an RBI double by Jerad Fife.

Besides Gouge reaching on an error in the seventh, the other baserunners for the Knights were Brown (walk), Wincle (walk), Fife (walk, hit by pitch, error), Pixler (error), Morris (walk, hit by pitch), Brodie Graffman (error, hit by pitch), and Cameron McKinney (hit by pitch).

In last Monday's county showdown with Beggs, the visiting Demons took an early 1-0 lead with a run in the top of the first.

Henryetta pushed across two runs in the bottom of the second to take over the lead at 2-1 after two innings of action.

After a scoreless third, the Beggs squad tied the score at 2-2 with a run in the top of the fourth, then went back ahead, 3-2, with a run in the top of the fifth.

Henryetta went back in front, 6-3, with a 4-run bottom of the sixth and appeared on its way to an upset victory over the fourth-ranked Demons.

Beggs overcame the 3-run deficit in the top of the seventh, plating four runs in the frame for a 7-6 lead for the visitors.

The host Knights tallied a run in their last at-bat of regulation to send the game to extra innings with the score deadlocked at 7-7.

Neither county squad plated any runs in their half of the eighth, sending the game to another extra frame with the score still tied 7-7.

The Demons broke the 7-7 deadlock with two runs in the top of the ninth and kept the Knights off the scoreboard in the last of the inning to walk away with the thrilling 9-7, 9-inning, victory.

Jared Montgomery was saddled with the pitching loss for Henryetta, allowing four runs on two hits, striking out four, walking one, and two hit batters in two and two-third innings of relief work.

Montgomery took over for starter Drew Brown with one out in the seventh. Brown gave up five runs on six hits with eight strikeouts, four walks, and one hit batter in six and one-third innings of work.

Brown and Ethan Wincle led the offensive attack for Henryetta with 2-run singles.

The other base hits for the Knights came on singles by Jerad Fife, Cameron McKinney, Lance Gouge, and Jeremiah Boyles and a double by Jean Pixler. Fife and Boyles drove in runs with sacrifice flies in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively.

Other Henryetta baserunners in the county battle were Brown (walk), Montgomery (3 walks, hit by pitch), McKinney (2 walks), Pixler (walk, hit by pitch), Boyles (walk, error, fielder's choice), Wincle (fielder's choice), Brodie Graffman (walk), and Andrew Morris (walk, hit by pitch).