Preston baseball notches home wins over Mounds, Quapaw for 3-0 start

The Preston Pirate varsity spring baseball team improved to 3-0 on the young season this past weekend with a pair of home wins.

The Pirates, who began the 2023 campaign last Tuesday with a 10-0 win over Varnum, captured wins over the Mounds Golden Eagles (11-3) on Friday and the Quapaw Wildcats (11-5) on Saturday for a 3-0 start to the season.

The Preston diamond squad returned to action Monday and Tuesday with home meetings with Roff and Holdenville, respectively.

In Friday’s showdown with Mounds, the Pirates opened the scoring with three runs in the home half of the first for an early 3-0 advantage.

The visitors made it a 3-1 contest with a run in the top of the second, while Preston extended its lead to 6-1 with three runs in the last of the third.

After a scoreless fourth, Mounds cut the Preston lead to three, 6-3, with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth.

The host Pirates tallied a run in their half of the fifth for a 7-3 advantage, then tacked on four runs in the bottom of the sixth to end the contest on the run rule, 11-3.

Kellen Dean got the start on the mound for Preston last Friday, allowing three runs on two hits with seven strikeouts, four walks, and one hit batter in five innings of work to earn the pitching win.

Cooper Ausbrooks worked a scoreless inning of relief in the sixth for the Pirates, striking out one, walking two, and hitting a batter.

Braxton Kennedy was the top hitter for Preston against Mounds, going 2 for 3 with a single, double, and 3 RBIs.

Kellen Dean also had a multi-hit game for the Pirates on Friday, finishing 2 for 4 at the plate with a pair of singles and 2 RBIs.

The other five Preston base hits against Mounds came on a single by Ausbrooks, double by Luke Hankins, RBI single by Noah Wilson, RBI double by Easton Shaw, and 2-run triple by Kaden Dean.

Preston Hale did not record an official at-bat in the contest, drawing three walks and driving in a run with an RBI sacrifice fly in the fifth.

In Saturday’s meeting with Quapaw, the visitors broke a scoreless tie with three runs in the top of the third for a 3-0 lead. The Pirates countered with three runs in their half of the inning to deadlock the score at 3-3 after three.

Preston pushed across two runs in the home half of the fourth to take over the lead at 5-3, while Quapaw answered with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth for a 5-5 tie after four and one-half innings of action.

The score remained tied 5-5 until the bottom of the sixth when the host Pirates erupted for six runs in the frame to regain the lead, 11-5, with one inning remaining in regulation.

The Preston defense kept the visitors off the scoreboard in the top of the seventh to award the Pirates the 11-5 decision.

Easton Shaw was awarded the pitching win for Preston in the contest. Shaw worked the final two innings in relief to earn the pitching decision, allowing no runs on two hits with two strikeouts, one walk, and one hit batter in his relief appearance.

Kaden Dean started on the mound for Preston on Saturday, allowing two runs on one hit, striking out four and walking three in two and one-third innings of work.

Hunter McElhannon took over with one out and two on in the third and faced only four batters without recording an out in the relief appearance, giving up one run on one hit with three walks.

Braxton Kennedy took over for McElhannon, allowing two runs on three hits with two strikeouts and one walk in two and two-third innings of relief work.

Offensively, the Pirates tallied 19 hits to go along with their 11 runs. Leading the offensive attack for Preston against Quapaw were Kennedy (3 for 4, 3 singles, RBI), Luke Hankins (3 for 3, 3 singles, RBI), Kaden Dean (3 for 5, 3 singles, 2 RBIs), and Cooper Ausbrooks (3 for 3, 2 singles, double, RBI) with three hits apiece.

Also recording multi-hit games for Preston on Saturday were Kellen Dean (2 for 4, single, triple, RBI), Jayden Herring (2 for 5, 2 singles, RBI), and Noah Wilson (2 for 4, single, triple, 2 RBIs) with two hits each.

The final base hit for the Pirates against Quapaw came on a single by Easton Shaw, who also drove in a run in the third with an RBI sacrifice fly.

--- Friday, March 17

Preston 11, Mounds 3

Mounds:0-1-0-0-2-0 3 -2-2 Preston: 3-0-3-0-1-4 11-9-0 WP: Kellen Dean LP: Green HR: None --- Saturday, March 18 Preston 11, Quapaw 5

Quapaw:0-0-3-0-2-0-0 5-7-3 Preston:0-0-3-2-0-6-x 11-19-2 WP: Easton Shaw LP: Stand-Johnston HR: None