Broken Arrow forces shakeup in District 6A-3 baseball title race with revenge win at Owasso

By Mike Moguin 

Broken Arrow photo by BA Baseball Twitter page

OWASSO - Broken Arrow avenged its loss to Owasso earlier this week as it beat the Rams, 5-2, Thursday evening at Stigall Field.

The win denied the Class 6A defending state champion Rams the District 6A-3 title.

Sand Springs (25-7 overall, 11-3 in district) now stands in first by virtue of run differential in district play, while the Tigers (23-8, 11-3) are in second and Owasso (22-12, 11-3) is in third. Jenks (21-11, 10-3) is in fourth and still has a district game at home against Ponca City, now scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, according to the OSSAARankings.com website.

Aidan Henderson was the winning pitcher for the Tigers, ranked ninth by SBLive Oklahoma in the latest statewide rankings. He threw the entire game, allowing two runs on seven hits, one walk and registering three strikeouts.

“Going into this game, I had an aggressive mentality,” Henderson said. “I wanted to get ahead in the count early. Throwing strikes, first pitch helped me a lot, set me up later in the count and made it easier for me to get outs in general.”

The Rams, ranked No. 12 by SBLive Oklahoma, took a 1-0 lead early on a one-out solo-shot home run by Branden Floyd. That came in the second inning and the score held through the top of the fifth.

“I wasn’t really frustrated at all,” Henderson said. “Those are going to happen. As soon as he hit it, I was ready to go right back on the mound, ready to go for another pitch.

"I know our offense is one of the best in the state and we were going to score runs no matter what, eventually. I just had trust in the team.”

The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but rain in the area that evening postponed it to Thursday.

When both teams played Monday night in Broken Arrow, it was the Rams who took a 7-1 victory. It went the Tigers’ way this time.

“On Monday night, we had to face Owasso’s day one guy (Jackson Farrell), who is committed to Arkansas, he has a great fastball, great curveball, he knows where to spot, so our bats were not there," BA coach Shannon Dobson said. "Our pitching wasn’t there, either. We had walks after walks. Five out of the seven runs scored were after walks.”

It was the Rams who issued walks in Thursday’s game with a total of nine.

Owasso starting pitcher James Suiter began struggling in the fourth when he was issuing walks, He was relieved by center fielder Luke Williams in the fifth, who would take the loss.

Broken Arrow went up, 2-1, in the top of the fifth on consecutive one-out RBI doubles from Jaxon Gregory and Landon Flusche.

The frame actually began three straight two-baggers as Kade Matthews, the Tigers’ leadoff batter, started things off with his own double and was the beneficiary, scoring on Gregory’s double which tied the score.

Before the visiting Tigers took the lead, Owasso had a chance to build on its lead in the bottom of the fourth when Williams and Floyd hit one-out singles.

With two outs, Grady Mercer appeared as if he was going to get a base hit that might have driven in two runs, but Matthews, from his center field position, ran over in time while landing on the ground to catch the ball to make the final out.

Baylor Corbin tried to get something going after the Rams fell behind when he led off with a single in the bottom of the fifth and advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt from Easton Hailey. But the next two batters flew out to Matthews in center.

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The Tigers added three more runs in the top of the sixth. Henderson drew a walk, Tyler Billingsley singled, and Eli Garrison walked to load the bases.

Matthews then drew an RBI-bases-loaded walk. Grayson Childers drove in the next run with a single and it was 4-1 with no outs.

After Gregory went down on strikes for the first out, Flusche drove in Matthews with a sacrifice fly, making it 5-1.

Owasso refused to go down without a fight in the seventh. Mercer hit the Rams’ second solo home run of the game, also on one out, over the right field wall.

Later, Hailey doubled with two outs., but Jackson Farrell - the winning pitcher from Monday night - grounded out to second base and the game was over.

A second-place finish would allow Broken Arrow to host a regional next week.

Gregory led the Tigers at the plate with a 2-for-4 performance, including his RBI double that tied the score.

Floyd and Corbin led the hosts with 2-for-3 efforts.

Although district play is over, Broken Arrow has regular season games at home remaining against Victory Christian at 5 p.m. Friday and Springdale (Ark.) Har-Ber at noon Saturday.

Owasso remains at home against Salina at 6 p.m. Friday and Life Prep (Kansas) at 3 p.m. on Saturday, as the Rams complete their regular season slate.