The Preston Pirate varsity baseball season saw their dreams of a state tournament berth in 2022 fall two wins shy this past Saturday evening.

The Pirates were denied their first state tournament appearance since 2016 with an 11-1 loss to the Morrison Wildcats Saturday on the Wildcats’ home field.

The season-ending setback came in the first (of a possible two) championship game of the Class 2A regional baseball tournament.

The Preston diamond squad began its regional tournament action Friday afternoon with an 11-5 loss to the Mangum Tigers.

The Pirates rebounded from its opening-round setback to defeat the Pawnee Black Bears by a narrow 4-3 margin in an elimination game on Friday.

Preston continued to avoid a season-ending loss in its first game on Saturday with a 13-7 victory over Mangum in the loser’s bracket finals, earning the Pirates a showdown with the host Morrison Wildcats and two wins away from ending their state tournament hiatus, which stood at 5 years.

The Pirates finish 2022 with a 23-5 record and a No. 10 ranking in Class 2A.

In Friday’s opening-round battle with Mangum, the Pirates trailed 2-1 after the first inning, then deadlocked the score at 2-2 with a run in the bottom of the second.

After a scoreless third, Mangum pushed across two runs in the top of the fourth to regain its lead at 4-2, then added three in the fifth for a 7-2 advantage.

The Pirates plated a run in the home half of the fifth to cut the deficit to four, 7-3, after five innings of action.

After Mangum tallied four runs in the top of the sixth to extend their lead to 11-3, the Preston offense was only able to produce two runs in the bottom of the sixth and were held scoreless in their final at-bat of regulation to suffer the 11-5 defeat.

The Pirates totaled eight hits in the opening-round loss, led by Dawson Sumner, who finished 2 for 3 with a pair of singles and an RBI. Sumner also drew a walk in the contest.

Luke Hankins also recorded a multihit game in the loss, going 2 for 3 with two singles. Hankins also drew a walk during the opening-round battle.

The other four Preston base hits against Mangum came on singles by Jayden Herring and Noah Wilson and RBI singles by Lance Porter and Braxton Kennedy.

Other baserunners against Mangum were Herring (2 walks), Porter (hit by pitch), Wilson (walk), Kennedy (walk, fielder’s choice), Cooper Ausbrooks (walk), Easton Shaw (hit by pitch), and Waylon Cope (hit by pitch).

Herring started on the mound for Preston in the opener and was saddled with the pitching loss. Herring allowed 10 runs on 11 hits with two strikeouts, five walks, and one hit batter in five and one-third innings of work.

Sumner worked the final inning and two-thirds in relief, giving up one run on three hits, striking out one and hitting a batter.

In Friday’s elimination game against Pawnee, the Pirates tallied a run in each of the first two innings for an early 2-0 advantage.

Pawnee took over the lead at 3-2 with three runs in the home half of the fourth, while Preston answered with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth to retake the lead at 4-3.

The Preston defense held the Black Bears off the scoreboard in the final two innings to earn the season-saving 4-3 victory.

Noah Wilson worked the first six and two-third innings to earn the pitching win for the Pirates in the ‘must win’ victory. Wilson gave up three runs on four hits, striking out six and walking seven in the contest.

Easton Shaw took over with two outs and the bases empty in the seventh and struck out the lone batter he faced to earn the pitching save.

Wilson (2 for 3, single, double) and Braxton Kennedy (2 for 2, 2 singles) led the Preston offensive attack with two hits each.

The other four base hits for the Pirates in the elimination game came on singles by Shaw and Jayden Herring, a double by Luke Hankins, and an RBI double by Lance Porter.

Other baserunnerse for Preston against Pawnee were Herring (walk), Wilson (hit by pitch), Kennedy (2 walks), Shaw (walk, fielder’s choice), and Dawson Sumner (walk).

In Saturday’s rematch with Mangum, the Pirates opened the scoring with six runs in the top of the first.

Mangum plated a pair of runs in its half of the first to make it a 6-2 Preston lead at the end of one inning of action.

Mangum took the second frame by a 2-1 margin to give the Pirates a 7-4 advantage, then Preston extended its lead to 10-4 with three runs in the top of the third.

Mangum made it a 10-5 contest with a run in the bottom of the fourth, while the Pirates answered with a run in the top of the fifth to regain their 6-run lead, 11-5, after four and onehalf innings.

After a scoreless sixth, the Preston offense tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh while the Pirate defense held Mangum to just two runs in the bottom of the inning to walk away with the 13-7 victory.

Easton Shaw went the distance on the mound for Preston to earn the pitching win. Shaw allowed seven runs on 14 hits with five strikeouts and four walks in seven innings of work.

Offensively, the Pirates erupted for 21 hits in the 7-inning contest, led by the duo of Luke Hankins (4 for 5, 4 singles) and Noah Wilson (4 for 5, 3 singles, double, 2 RBIs) with four hits each.

Cooper Ausbrooks was next in the hit column for Preston in the win, finishing 3 for 5 with three singles.

Other Preston players with multi-hit games against Mangum were Lance Porter (2 for 3, 2 singles, RBI), Braxton Kennedy (2 for 4, single, double, 3 RBIs), Dawson Sumner (2 for 4, 2 singles, RBI), and Waylon Cope (2 for 3, 2 singles, 2 RBIs) with two hits apiece.

The final two base hits for the Pirates in the elimination game came on a single by Jayden Herring and a 2-run single by Shaw.

Other baserunners against Mangum were Herring (walk), Porter (2 hit by pitches), Kennedy (walk), Shaw (2 hit by pitches), and Cope (walk, hit by pitch).

In the season-ending loss to Morrison, the Pirates’ lone run came in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by Lance Porter.

Morrison began the scoring with four runs in the bottom of the first, then added a run in the second, two runs in the third, and three runs in the fourth for a 10-0 advantage.

The final run for the host Wildcats came in the sixth to hand the Preston squad the season-ending 11-1 loss.

Cooper Ausbrooks was saddled with the pitching loss for Preston, allowing four runs in the first without recording an out. Ausbrooks walked three and hit two in his short 5-batter appearance.

Luke Hankins took over on the mound with the bases loaded and no outs in the first, giving up seven runs on 13 hits with one strikeout and five walks in five and two-third innings of relief work.

Easton Shaw led the Preston offense against Morrison, going 2 for 3 with a pair of singles.

Besides Porter’s RBI single in the fifth, the other base hits for the Pirates came on singles by Ausbrooks and Jayden Herring and a double by Noah Wilson.

Other baserunners in the season-ending loss were Herring (walk), Ausbrooks (walk), and Dawson Sumner (walk, hit by pitch).

Class 2A Regional Tournament First Round Mangum 11, Preston 5 Mangum: 2 - 0 - 0 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 0 11 - 14 - 0 Preston: 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 1 - 2 - 0 5 - 8 - 1 WP: Pride LP: Jayden Herring HR: None

Consolation Semifinals Preston 4, Pawnee 3 Preston: 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 2 - 0 - 0 4 - 8 - 2 Pawnee: 0 - 0 - 0 - 3 - 0 - 0 - 0 3 - 4 - 1 WP: Noah Wilson LP: Mitchell SV: Easton Shaw HR: None

Consolation Finals Preston 13, Mangum 7 Preston: 6 - 1 - 3 - 0 - 1 - 0 - 2 13 - 21 - 0 Mangum: 2 - 2 - 0 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 2 7 - 14 - 1 WP: Easton Shaw LP: Augustine HR: None

Championship

Morrison 11, Preston 1

Preston: 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 - 0 1 - 6 - 1

Morrison: 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 0 - 1 11 - 13 - 0

WP: Roe

LP: Cooper Ausbrooks

HR: Rupp