Hey, I did a different thing
Friday had me back at a ballpark, covering a state tournament
So here’s the deal.
I spent Friday afternoon at Noble High School on the request of my friend Murray Evans, who a few months ago became sports editor of the Lawton Constitution and has been doing great work ever since.
The assignment was to cover Mount St. Mary and Elgin in the semifinal round of the Class 4A state baseball tournament.
Understand, I knew nothing about either program, nor anything about their fortunes this season, only that they’d reached the state semifinal round. All I really knew, other than what was in Murray’s game story from the day before, was I was there because Elgin was there, not because St. Mary was there.
Murray asked for 600-700 words, which is right up my alley, also about 200 words more than anybody from The Oklahoman or The Tulsa World will write from a single high school game — other than the World’s Bill Haisten — who covers the high schools as a columnist, in this calendar year or any other.
Anyway, when I was done and had read over it, I was at 698 words.
Seriously.
It was great fund to be there and maybe more fun to not write a column, but a story about a game with all the flair I could muster without forgetting it wasn’t a column but, as mentioned, a game story.
It was fun to exercise the muscle memory I have for the form.
Because Elgin lost and it wasn’t close, the story had to be accurate and truthful, but also sympathetic. And because I was writing it, I had to find some drama in it to get the story going and carry me to every next paragraph.
Anyway, I did it, Murray liked it, and I liked it, too.
You probably didn’t have a dog in the fight but maybe you’ll enjoy it, too.
Also, to any and all readers, wherever you are, it’s an example of a different type of writing than what I tend to offer here three or four times a week. And, should you need somebody with my skills writing about the pros, the colleges or the preps, from track and field to hoops, the diamond, golf and tennis and the gridiron, too, give me a call or send me a note.
I miss being on site, I miss the crowd and the competition and I’ve done it very well going back about 30 years and I still have my fastball.
I’m not busy enough.
Make me busier.
Now here’s that story.
Enjoy.
Oh, and yes, I can write shorter if I must. :)
Rockets get the pitching, the hits, even the breaks, knocking Elgin out of state tourney
By Clay Horning
For The Constitution
NOBLE — Mount St. Mary had already scored three runs in the first inning, two more in the second and loaded the bases only to make the third out at the plate in the third.
Ritson Meyer, relieved from his mound duties during the Rockets’ two-run second, had already answered with a long home run over left field in the bottom of the first, but that was it as the fourth inning arrived.
Pitching for Elgin since Meyer’s removal, Kade Phillips fooled the Rockets’ Jefferson Hodge, who attempted to check his swing.
He checked it, but the ball still found his bat and his excuse-me-infield-single became the opening salvo of another Rockets’ three-run frame.
Perhaps then it was clear.
It wasn’t going to be the Owls’ day.
Instead, it was the Rockets, (almost) all the way, claiming a 9-5 decision in the semifinal round of the Class 4A state tournament.
Elgin finished the season with a 35-5 record and a fourth straight trip to a state tournament one season after finishing runner-up a year ago in Class 5A.
St. Mary, 32-7, will face Tuttle at 10 this morning at Shawnee High School for the state championship.
“It’s the culture, it’s the expectations, it’s a preparation that we’ve put forth each and every day and this is where we want to be,” Elgin coach Levi Garrett said of his program’s sustained success. “This is not how we want it to end, obviously, nobody does.”
But for the bottom of the seventh, and even then with two outs, the Owls could not string hits together against Rocket starting pitcher Will Grayson, who was forced off the mound one out short of a complete game when his pitch count reached the 120 limit.
It was against his replacement, Miles Stanley, the Owls, kind of, sort of, made a serious run at a miracle, rallying until the tying run was on deck.
Stanley walked Brody Morrison, gave up a single to Meyer and plunked Kade Hilliary to load the bases.
Graeson Nichols then popped a two-run single, forging what became the final score, leaving runners at the corners.
The game ended on Kason Meyer’s soft liner to center field.
Grayson spent most of the day locating his fastball and slider, and sometimes a changeup. He gave up exactly one Owl hit in every inning but the seventh, when he struck out Cayden Belletto and Mason Thornton before handing the ball to Stanley.
“He’s a good pitcher,” Ritson Meyer said.
On the mound, Meyer struck out the first batter he faced. Then it became difficult, the next six Rockets reaching.
Meyer balked home the first run before Will Grayson tripled home the second and Sam Grayson singled home the third.
In the second inning, it was an RBI double from Wade Webb, after which Meyer was lifted, and another RBI double from Ryan Kuklinski, the first batter Phillips faced.
“I was missing my spots,” Meyer said.
Kuklinski’s double, after walking in the first inning, was part of a huge day for the St. Mary catcher. Before he was done, he’d added a home run and driven in four.
Then came the fourth, when Hodge got lucky, Webb walked and Kuklinski mashed his three-run shot.
Those single hits each inning the Owls were getting tended to come early.
Nichols led off the second and fourth innings with singles. Belletto led off the third with a single. Brody Morrison’s two-run home run, making it 8-3 in the fifth, came with one out after Thornton walked. Kason Meyer’s single in the sixth came with one out.
The Owls had their chances, but Grayson remained unfazed, striking out 12, walking only two, allowing six hits and three runs over his 6 2/3 innings.
“They’re a really good ball club,” Garrett said of St. Mary. “They swung the bat a lot better than we did. They were able to capitalize.”
No state title for Elgin, but another big season after three other big seasons.
“We want to be in the state tournament,” Garrett said. “And if you’re in the tournament, you’ve had a great season.”