The dreams of the first state baseball championship for the Preston Pirate varsity fall baseball team were shattered last Thursday with a 16-7 loss to the Oktaha Tigers.
The dreams of the first state baseball championship for the Preston Pirate varsity fall baseball team were shattered last Thursday with a 16-7 loss to the Oktaha Tigers.
The 9-run setback came in the opening round of the Class A state fall baseball championships at Edmond Memorial High School in Edmond.
The first-round loss to the topranked Tigers brings the Pirates’ 2023 fall baseball season to a close with a 25-5 record.
In last Thursday’s opening-round meeting with Oktaha, the Pirates held a 7-2 lead after four and one-half innings of action, then watched the Tigers score 14 unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth innings to hand the Preston squad the opening-round defeat.
Oktaha began the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first for an early 1-0 advantage.
After a scoreless second, the Pirates pushed across three runs in the top of the third for a 3-1 lead.
Oktaha made it a 3-2 contest with a run in the home half of the fourth, while the Preston offense plated four runs in the top of the fifth to extend the Preston lead to five, 7-2, after four and one-half innings.
The top-ranked Tigers tallied seven runs in the bottom of the fifth for a 9-7 advantage, then pushed their lead to nine (16-7) with seven runs in the last of the sixth.
The Pirates were unable to overcome the huge deficit in their final at-bat of regulation to suffer the 16-7 defeat.
Kaden Dean was the top hitter for the Preston offense last Thursday, finishing 3 for 4 with a pair of singles, a double, and an RBI.
Kellen Dean (2 for 4, 2 singles, 3 RBIs) and Braxton Kennedy (2 for 3, single, triple) also recorded multi-hit games for the Pirates against Oktaha with two hits each. One of Kellen Dean’s RBIs came on an RBI groundout in the fifth.
The other base hits for Preston in last Thursday’s first-round contest came on a single by Jayden Herring and a 2-run double by Hunter McElahannon.
Other Pirate baserunners against Oktaha were Herring (error), Bradley Winford (walk, fielder’s choice), and Noah Wilson (walk).
Easton Shaw drove in one of the four Preston runs in the fifth with an RBI sacrifice fly.
Shaw was saddled with the pitching loss for the Pirates, allowing three runs on four hits, while facing four batters in a relief appearance in the fifth.
Shaw took over for starter Kaden Dean, who gave up six runs on two hits with six walks, six strikeouts, and two hit batters in four-plus innings of work.
Kennedy allowed five runs on two hits with one walk and one hit batter in one and one-third innings of relief, while Wilson worked the final one and two-third innings of relief for Preston, giving up two runs on one hit, walking three and hitting a batter.
--- Class A State Tournament First Round
Oktaha 16, Preston 7
Preston:0-0-3-0-4-0-0 7-9-2 Oktaha-1-0-0-1-7-7-x 16 - 9 - 1 WP: Edwards LP: Easton Shaw HR: None