Sandites Upset Owasso 2-0 for First State Finals Appearance Since 1978
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Jace ARnold flings His glove in celebration as the Sandites defeat Owasso 2-0.
Two outs away from the Sandites’ first State Finals appearance since 1978, Easton Webb gave up a ground ball single to Reace Martinez. With the tying run now at the plate, the sophomore pitcher took a step back and called time.
“Just the nerves. Regardless of how you try to avoid them, they’re still always there,” said Webb. “They’ll get to you, but you’ve just got to be able to flush it out, go out there and play still.”
After a quick chat with his infielders, the Oklahoma State-commit stepped back up on the mound and finished up. A sacrifice hit moved the runner to second, but Miller Tavaglione caught Bodie Anderson’s pop fly in left field and the gloves went flying.
Final score 2-0. Charles Page High School (29-11) paid back a pair of regular season losses and took down the district champions from Owasso (35-7) in front of a large crowd at Norman North’s Tull Lake Field Friday afternoon.
“My last outing against them wasn’t good,” said Webb (7-1), who gave up five walks and two hits in a three-inning start against the Rams on April 15. That game ended in a 5-0 defeat, his only recorded loss of the season.
“I was trying to throw it by them, but I knew I couldn’t do that this game. They’re a bunch of good hitters, so I had to be able to mix up my pitches, throw everything for a strike, let them get themselves out. If I strike them out, I strike them out. But just throw everything for a strike.”
EAston Webb and Matt Brown embrace after the sophomore pitcher’s win.
This time around he did indeed throw 68% strikes, only giving up one walk and three hits while striking out two. Not getting too deep in the counts allowed him to stay fresh, throwing just 88 pitches while going all seven innings.
Taking the loss for Owasso was Arkansas-commit Luke Williams (7-2), who struck out 10 but surrendered six walks and five hits.
Williams reached his max pitch count in the top of the seventh after walking Kayden Campbell and giving up a sacrifice bunt to Wyatt Rutledge. Jaiden Gustafson closed things out, getting Jackson Turney to pop out to left, while Tavaglione grounded out to short to leave Campbell stranded at third.
As much as Sand Springs was hoping for insurance runs, leaving eight runners stranded over the course of the game, the two they plated were enough as Owasso was shut out for only the second time this season and the first time in over two months.
“The kids played great,” said head coach Matt Brown. “We’ve been preaching all day just to stay in the moment. The kids are doing a great job of that. They played fantastic so I’m just proud of them.”
A raucous dugout appeared to get in Williams’s head early in the game as senior lefty gave up singles to Alex Dudley and Webb, then walked Gatlin Gunn and Jace Arnold for a free run.
The Rams nearly got a run back in the second after an error at short and a walk put the Sandites in a bind with no outs. Webb sent a ground ball to first and struck out the next two batters to strand the threat.
Owasso stranded a single runner in the third, fifth, and seventh innings but never made it past second base following the second inning.
Rutledge padded the Sandites’ lead in the fifth, reaching on a ground ball to center field. He took second on a passed ball and scored on a single to left from Tavaglione.
Rutledge, a Northern Oklahoma College at Enid-commit, reached base three times with one walk and a team-best two hits. He also came up big in Thursday’s quarterfinal, going 2-of-2 for two runs and an RBI against Edmond Santa Fe.
“I don’t know how long it’s been since we’ve gone to the finals,” said Rutledge. “We’re just going with the flow. We’re hot and we’re hoping to stay hot.”
Sand Springs has won eight games in a row, including shutouts, shootouts, and blowouts. Now they’re only 21 outs away from potentially bringing home the first gold ball in school history.
“The last two years we had a hard Regional and ended up losing both Regionals,” said Rutledge. “It feels really good to come out here and be in the finals.”
Sand Springs will take on Westmoore (24-17) Saturday at 5:00 p.m. at Chickasaw Bricktown Ball Park in Oklahoma City.
Sand Springs is making its first finals appearance since 1978 while the Jaguars are in the finals for the fourth time since winning their only title in 1994.
“We’ve got tough kids and they’re going to go toe-to-toe with anybody,” said Brown. “It doesn’t matter who shows up in the other dugout.”
Sand Springs previously defeated the Jaguars 6-1 and 24-13 last month.
