The Okmulgee Bulldog varsity baseball team closed out last week’s schedule with a pair of losses.
The Okmulgee Bulldog varsity baseball team closed out last week’s schedule with a pair of losses.
The Bulldogs traveled to Weleetka last Thursday and found themselves on the short end of a 7-4 outcome, then hosted the Checotah Wildcats last Friday, falling to their McIntosh County foes by a 15-7 margin.
The Okmulgee diamond squad returned to action Monday and Tuesday with a home-and-home District 3A-5 series with the Prague Red Devils. The Bulldogs will close out the week at home, hosting their annual baseball tournament, the Okmulgee Neal’s Classic.
In last Thursday’s road game at Weleetka, the host Outlaws opened the scoring with four runs in the bottom of the second.
After a scoreless third, the Bulldogs knotted the score at 4-4 with four runs in the top of the fourth.
Weleetka regained the lead, 6-4, with two runs in the bottom of the fourth then added an insurance run in the fifth for a 7-4 advantage.
The Okmulgee squad was unable to produce any runs in its final two at-bats of regulation to suffer the 7-4 setback.
Daylan Callaway led the way offensively for the Bulldogs, finishing 3 for 4 with two singles, a double, and 3 RBIs.
Jalen Monahwee (2 for 4, single, double) and Tylen Smith (2 for 3, 2 singles) also recorded multi-hit games for Okmulgee last Thursday with two hits each.
The final two base hits for the Bulldogs at Weleetka came on a single by Braelin Hopkins-Lewis and an RBI single by Ryder Hedges.
Alex Gilmour was handed the pitching loss for Okmulgee last Thursday, giving up seven runs on 10 hits, striking out two and hitting eight in six innings of work.
In Friday’s home meeting with Checotah, the visitors began the scoring with five runs in the top of the first.
The Bulldogs plated two runs in their half of the frame to cut the deficit to three, 5-2, after one inning of action.
Checotah tallied a run in the second and three more in the third to extend its lead to 9-2, while Okmulgee pushed across five runs in the bottom of the third to make it a 9-7 contest.
The visitors scored five in the fourth and one in the fifth, while the Bulldogs were unable to produce any runs in those two innings to suffer the 157, run-rule, defeat.
Brandon Simon was saddled with the pitching loss for Okmulgee, allowing 12 runs on 11 hits with two strikeouts, three walks, and one hit batter in three-plus innings of work.
Austin Burwell worked one and onethird innings of relief, giving up three runs on three hits with one strikeout, two walks, and one hit batter.
Jordan Deere gave up one hit in his two-thirds of an inning of relief work in the fifth.
The four Okmulgee base hits in the loss came on singles by Simon, Alex Gilmour, Daylan Callaway, and Braelin Hopkins-Lewis.
Six of the seven runs by the Bulldogs on Friday came courtesy of RBI walks. Hopkins-Lewis and Kevin Washington drove in runs with RBI walks in the first, while four of the five Okmulgee runs in the third came on RBI walks by Gilmour, Callaway, Joseph Robertson, and Ryder Hedges.
--- Thursday, April 13
Weleetka 7, Okmulgee 4
Okmulgee:0-0-0-4-0-0-0 4-9-0 Weleetka: 0-4-0-2-1-0-x 7 - 10 - 0 WP: Hart LP: Alex Gilmour HR: None ---- Friday, April 14
Checotah 15, Okmulgee 7 Checotah: 5-1-3-5-1 15 - 15 - 0 Okmulgee:2-0-5-0-0 7-4-2 WP: Sission LP: Brandon Simon HR: None
