By David Seeley
The Sequoyah County Times
The Preston Pirates were battling two foes in Thursday afternoon’s Class 2A State Baseball Tournament quarterfinals at Shawnee High School’s Ed Skelton Field.
First, they were battling the Wister Wildcats. Secondly, they were battling Mother Nature. The good news for the Pirates is they beat them both.
Despite going through two rain delays — one at the start of the game and the other midway through a second-inning rally for Preston — the Pirates rallied from a 3-0 deficit and walked off the Wildcats 4-3 to advance to Friday morning’s state semifinal against No. 1 Oktaha at 11 a.m. Oktaha run-ruled Central in a battle of Tigers 10-0 five innings in Thursday’s first quarterfinal contest.
The first rain delay happened right after the introductions were made due to lightning in the area, forcing the game’s first pitch to be delayed about 40 minutes.
The second rain delay happened in the bottom of the second inning with the Pirates batting, down 2-0, and runners at first and second bases with an out. This delay lasted about 90 minutes.
“Mother Nature was not our best friend (on Thursday),” Preston coach Ryan Hudson said. “Rain delays are baseball, but the one thing we preach every single day is baseball is a tough sport. Our motto is ‘Tough people win.’ (Thursday) was a true testament to exactly that.”
After the ’Cats (23-7) built its lead to 3-0 in the fourth inning, the Pirates (26-3) finally broke through in their half of the frame.
An RBI single by Waylon Cope, an RBI fielder’s choice by Jayden Herring and a Wister error produced three runs to knot the game at 3-all after four innings.
In the home half of the seventh inning, Kellen Dean reached on a fielder’s choice with two outs, then was moved to third base on a Texas-League bloop single behind first base by Noah Wilson.
Hunter McElhannon hit a swinging bunt heading between the open ground between third base and the pitcher’s mound. Wister relief pitcher Landon Donaho got to the ball, but he not only one, but twice failed to get the handle on the baseball. By the time Donaho picked up the ball, there was no play to be had. Dean scored the game-winning run with two outs, and the celebration was on.
“I’m very proud of my guys,” Hudson said. “We get to move on to the semifinals. We’re two wins away, but we’re going to handle one game at a time. We’ll go tackle Oktaha. That’s a pretty big feat, but these guys are primed. I have a great group of seniors and a great group of middle classmen. We’re going to go get them (Oktaha).
For the game, Kaden Dean was 2-for-3 for Preston, and he also got the win in relief for the Pirates as he went the final two innings with six strikeouts. McElhannon started and went the first two innings with two strikeouts. Wilson went the next three innings with two strikeouts.
“I want to congratulate the Wister Wildcats for a phenomenal season,” Hudson said. “They are a very good baseball team and very well coached.”
Class 2A State Tournament
Quarterfinals
Preston 4, Wister 3
Wister 110 100 0 — 3 4 3
Preston 000 300 1 — 4 3 1
Winning run scored with two outs.
WP — Kaden Dean. LP — Landon Donaho. 2B — Will Bryan (W).
