Sandite Baseball's successful season comes to a close in Regional upset
/This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.
Trailing 13-12 in the bottom of the eighth, the Sandites loaded the bases with two outs and Nathan Gibson stepped up to the plate.
The senior first-baseman grounded a 2-0 pitch to second for the fielder’s choice, and just like that, Sand Springs’ best season in a decade came to a close.
Charles Page High School (31-8) earned its highest win tally since 2012 this season and got to host a Regional playoff, but came up a run short to Enid (25-9) in a high-scoring elimination game.
“We won 31 games this year,” said head coach Matt Brown. “You always want to win the last one, but only one team gets to win the last one. These guys fought and battled hard - that’s what people are going to remember about them.”
The Sandites had to battle through every inch of the tournament, and barely won their first game 4-3 against Booker T. Washington (9-29) after trailing 3-1 till the bottom of the fifth.
Kayden Campbell (5-0) won that game on the mound with four strikeouts and only one hit in 3.1 innings.
In their first winner’s bracket game against Enid, the Plainsmen won 3-1 despite being out-hit eight to six. Jabe Schlehuber (6-2) went the distance on the mound with three strikeouts.
On day two the Sandite bats were on fire in an 8-0 loser’s bracket shutout of Washington. Gage Elliott got his first win of the season, throwing eight strikeouts in a seven-inning two-hitter.
Gabe Glenn hit his fifth home run of the season and Brody Rutledge went 3-of-4 with a double and a triple.
The Sandites had to come from behind three times to force extra innings against the Plainsmen on Saturday and amassed 12 hits but surrendered 19 in the afternoon nail-biter.
“These guys are the best Sand Springs team that’s played here in a long time,” said Brown. “They were never going to quit - that was never an option.”
Enid scored four in the top of the second, but Glenn hit his sixth homer of the year to get the home team on the board, then Brooks Dudley scored on an RBI single from Gibson in the bottom of the inning.
Dom Ornelas added an RBI double and Rutledge scored on a flyout from Glenn to tie it in the third.
Back-to-back homers from Garrett Shull and McCage Hartling put the visitors right back on top, 7-4, in the fourth, but the Sandites soon flipped the script.
A bases-loaded walk, a sacrifice fly from Keaton Campbell, and a three-run homer from Ornelas put Sand Springs up 9-7.
Once again, the Plainsmen responded with four hits and two walks in the fifth to go up 11-9. Once again, the Sandites responded with a two-run homer from Glenn in the bottom of the seventh to keep the season alive.
But a win was not in the cards for the Sandites, who stranded loaded bases in the seventh and eighth innings. Enid added two more runs in the eighth and Ornelas’s tenth homer of the year was only able to cut it to 13-12.
Carson Seabolt (3-1) got the start and surrendered 13 hits with three strikeouts in 4.1 innings, but Eli Buxton (3-2) took the loss with six hits and four strikeouts in 3.2 innings.
“You’ve got to give credit to Enid,” said Brown. “Those guys played freaking good. Sometimes it be like that.”
The Sandites went on to graduate 11 seniors that night at the Mabee Center. Each of which helped elevate the program to one of its most successful seasons in school history.
“These guys set the bar,” said Brown. “It’s up to those guys that are coming behind them to keep it there.”
The Sand Springs track teams qualified for the State meet in five events, with both the boys and girls placing seventh at the 6A-East Regional Saturday at Jenks.
Layne Kirkendoll qualified in both long and high jump, placing second in high jump at 5 ft. 4 in. and second in long jump at 18 ft. 2 in.
The girls 4x800 relay team of Josie Myers, Gracie Gifford, Jazmin Lopez, and Kelsi Hilton qualified for State by placing third with a time of 10:45.32.
Jestin Rawlins placed fifth in discus with a distance of 148 ft. 5 in. to qualify for State and Matthew Shelton placed sixth in shot put with a distance of 46 ft. 11 in. to qualify.
Lopez also placed fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:32.16, and Hilton was sixth in the 3200 in 13:15.24.
Dalton Wilcox placed fourth in the 800 in 2:05.31, Noah Hanlon placed fourth in the 3200 in 10:52.37, and Caleb Goodman placed sixth in 300 Hurdles in 43 seconds.
The boys 4x200 relay team placed fifth in 1:39.99.
