The Okmulgee varsity baseball team opened district play last Wednesday at Meeker High School, battling the host Meeker Bulldogs in a District 3A-5 doubleheader.
The Okmulgee varsity baseball team opened district play last Wednesday at Meeker High School, battling the host Meeker Bulldogs in a District 3A-5 doubleheader.
The visiting Bulldogs dropped Game 1 of the twinbill by a 10-1 margin, then found themselves on the short end of an 18-3 outcome in the nightcap.
The Okmulgee diamond squad returned to action Monday and Tuesday with a pair of district battles with their Okmulgee County rivals, the Beggs Golden Demons. The two county teams were scheduled to square off Monday in Beggs then conclude the home-and-home district series Tuesday in Okmulgee.
The Bulldogs will close out the week with a road game Thursday at Henryetta and a trip to Kiefer Friday and Saturday for the Kiefer Baseball Festival.
In last Wednesday’s first district meeting with Meeker, the host Bulldogs opened the scoring with three runs in the home half of the first. Okmulgee tallied its lone run of the contest in the top of the second to cut the deficit to two, 3-1, after one and onehalf innings of action.
Meeker plated three runs in the bottom of the second for a 6-1 advantage, then added three in the fourth and one in the fifth to hand Okmulgee the 10-1 defeat.
Alex Gilmour was saddled with the pitching loss for the visiting Bulldogs, allowing 10 runs on 11 hits with two strikeouts, three walks, and three hit batters in four and one-third innings of work.
The four base hits for Okmulgee in Game 1 came on singles by Jordan Deere, Kevin Washington, and Braelin Hopkins-Lewis and a double by Brandon Simon.
In last Wednesday’s nightcap at Meeker, the host Bulldogs opened the scoring with five runs in the top of the first.
Okmulgee broke up the shutout bid with a run in the bottom of the second for a 5-1 contest after two innings of action.
After Meeker plated four runs in the top of the third for a 9-1 advantage, the Okmulgee squad tallied two runs in the home half of the fourth to cut the Meeker lead to six, 9-3.
The host Bulldogs doubled their run total to 18 with nine runs in the top of the fifth, while the Okmulgee squad was unable to respond in the last of the fifth to wind up on the losing end of an 18-3 outcome.
Austin Burwell got the start on the mound for Okmulgee in Game 2 and was saddled with the pitching loss. Burwell gave up five runs on three hits with three walks and two hit batters in just two-thirds of an inning of work.
Jordan Deere worked the next three and one-third innings in relief, allowing seven runs on six hits, striking out two, walking two, and hitting a batter.
Brandon Simon gave up six runs on two hits with one strikeout, three walks, and two hit batters in two-thirds of an inning of relief work in the fifth, while Tylen Smith retired the only batter he faced in the fifth in relief of Simon.
Braelin Hopkins-Lewis accounted for two of the three Okmulgee hits in the nightcap, finishing 2 for 2 with a single and double.
The other Okmulgee base hit in Game 2 came on an RBI single by Smith.
Burwell drove in one of the two runs for the visiting Bulldogs in the fourth with an RBI groundout.
--- Wednesday, March 15 First Game
Meeker 10, Okmulgee 1
Okmulgee:0-1-0-0-0 1-4-2 Meeker: 3 - 3 - 0 - 3 - 1 10 - 11 - 0 WP: Butler LP: Alex Gilmour HR: Meeker: Fullbright --- Second Game
Meeker 18, Okmulgee 3
Meeker: 5 - 0 - 4 - 0 - 9 18 - 11 - 0 Okmulgee:0-1-0-2-0 3-3-0 WP: Vaughn LP: Austin Burwell HR: None\
