Sandite Baseball Splits With Broken Arrow
/The hunt for the 6A-3 district title is still wide open as the Charles Page High School baseball team (11-5, 4-2) split a district series with Broken Arrow (13-3, 5-1) last week.
“One of our goals every year is always to finish in the top two and host a Regional,” says head coach Matt Brown.
“We’ve put that opportunity right in front of us. When we go and play how we’re supposed to play, we’re going to end up in a good place at the end of the year.”
The Sandites have now split series with two of the top three teams in the district, making next week’s games against district-leading Jenks (12-6, 6-0) crucial. Sand Springs will play the Trojans at home on Monday and Tuesday on the road.
“Jenks hasn’t lost a district game yet so obviously they’re good,” says Brown.”And we’re pretty good too, so it should be some fun baseball games.”
On Monday the Sandites fell 7-1 to Broken Arrow despite an eight-strikeout effort from Eli Buxton (1-3). Rhen Rutledge scored the lone run on an RBI single from Schlehuber in the bottom of the first.
Schlehuber (3-0) got the win in Tuesday’s rematch with Easton Webb recording the save in a shootout.
“We’re really deep on the mound,” says Brown. “We’ve got a lot of experience on the mound and I think that’s our strength. We’re really pretty well rounded.”
The teams combined for 23 hits as the Sandites scored the most runs of any Broken Arrow opponent this season.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first, the Sandites took the lead once and for all in the second on a two-run single from Wyatt Rutledge. Elliott and Rhen Rutledge added one-run singles to go up 5-2.
The Tigers cut it to 5-4 in the third but Rhen Rutledge added his second scoring hit in the fourth to bring in Brody Rutledge, who tripled. Dom Ornelas’s fifth homer of the year put the visiting Sandites up 8-4.
“Dom is obviously our leader offensively for sure and Rhen and Brody have pretty great years so far. We’ve worked really really hard in the weight room all year long and it’s nice to see that translate out on the field.”
Broken Arrow scored two more in the fifth but Rhen Rutledge added an insurance run in the sixth on a single from Ornelas.
The Sandites had a Thursday game against Lincoln Christian rained out before winning a 6-4 non-district battle against Muskogee (4-10) on Friday.
The Sandites stormed out to a 6-0 lead before a sixth-inning Rougher rally flipped the script from blowout to nail-bitter.
“In Oklahoma, everyone’s good,” says Brown. “Every time you show up, there’s someone in the other dugout who’s capable of beating you.”
“Everybody in 6A has good kids…You lose focus for even a second and mess around - you’ll get beat.”
Four walks, a sacrifice hit from Schlehuber, and a two-run single from Wyatt Rutledge put the home team up 4-0 in the bottom of the first.
Jackson Turney added an RBI double in the second and Brody Rutledge scored on a sacrifice fly from Ornelas after a leadoff triple in the fourth.
Gage Elliott (4-0) got the start and win on the mound, fanning four with one hit in three innings.
Jace Arnold (1-1) entered the game in the fourth and struck out five before getting in a bind in the top of the sixth. After loading the bases with two walks and a single he struck out a sixth before Doc Estes blasted a bases-clearing triple to get Muskogee on the board.
Arnold ended with seven strikeouts to three hits and two walks in three innings. Webb recorded his second save of the week to close out the game.
“I really like where our program is at,” says Brown. “I feel like we can compete with anybody. I know for sure our kids aren’t scared of anybody. We’re at a place right now where our kids show up and expect to win and it doesn’t matter who’s in the other dugout. They expect to win every single time.”
Sand Springs will host Glenpool (7-11) Thursday at 5:00 p.m. before traveling to Edmond Deer Creek (10-8) on Saturday.
