Preston baseball headed to 2A tourney Tuesday

The field is set for the State 2A Baseball Tournament Thursday as the Preston Pirates under Coach Ryan Hudson join seven other teams in Shawnee.

Coach Hudson, Assistant Coach Cody McCart and the Pirates punched their ticket to State after winning the Class 2A Regional Tournament convincingly at home with three straight wins. The Pirates are 25-3, and currently ranked number #5 in the State of Oklahoma.

This is their third straight season to make it to the State Tournament.

Joining the Pirates will be Oktaha, Dale, Cashion, Wister, Latta, Central Sallisaw and Panama.

The Pirates will face the Wister Wildcats, who are 23-6 under Coach Ryan Tucker.

Preston convincingly May 2-3, as they dominated Wyandotte 15-4, and shut out Choteau-Mazie 10-0 and 16-0.

Against the Wyandotte Bears, Noah Wilson drove in four runs on one hit to lead the Pirates to victory. Wilson hit a sacrifice fly in the first scoring one, hit a solo home run to center field in the third scoring one, hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth scoring one, and walked in the fifth scoring one.

Wilson, Hunter McElhannon and Easton Shaw have been outstanding on the mound as they racked up at least 15 strikeouts during regional action, while only allowing four runs to score.

State action promises to be exciting as the tournament opens at 11 a.m. with Oktaha (29-3) against Central Sallisaw (18-15). A win by Preston at 1:30 p.m. will see them face the victor of Oktaha/Central Sallisaw.

Cashion (30-5) will face Latta (23-8) at 4 p.m. with Panama (26-5) taking on Dale (26-4) at 6 p.m.

If the Pirates can keep their winning streak alive, they will play at 11 a.m. on Friday, and 12 noon on Saturday for the State Championship.

Preston students will be released at 11:30 a.m. so that students and staff may travel to Shawnee to watch the Preston Pirates Varsity Baseball team play in the State Tournament.