Undefeated Sandites win third straight with 6-2 victory at OneOK Field
/Jake Ward pitched 9 strikeouts in a win over Booker T Washington Monday night.
Story by: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief
Jake Ward had one heck of a night on the mound. The Charles Page High School pitcher won his second game of the season with nine strikeouts and only allowed two walks and four hits while throwing 49% strikes.
The Sandites started their season last week and have racked up wins against Tulsa NOAH, Sapulpa, and Booker T Washington thus far to remain one of only 14 undefeated 6A teams. Monday night the Sandites took on the Hornets at OneOK Stadium in downtown Tulsa, the home of the Drillers, and easily handled their opponent.
The team batted just under .400 and Treyce Tolbert lead the team with two runs (coming from walks) along with cousin Trevor Tolbert who batted in two runners in two at-bats.
Ward started on fire, striking out the first four batters before Cole Mendenhall finally got off a single in the top of the second. With one out on the board, Hunter Greathouse was the first Sandite to get on base with a left field single in the bottom of the second. Treyce Tolbert was walked and Jake Terry hit a sacrifice fly to advance the runners on base. Trevor Tolbert brought Greathouse home with a line drive single into right field, then Ty Fain brought home Treyce with a bunt and a fielding error. Trevor was put out at third and the Sandites went to field with a 2-0 lead.
The Hornets failed to get off a hit in the third and the Sandites scored another run as Rhett Rutledge was hit by a pitch and walked, then stole second and advanced to home on a single by Joey Montgomery.
Booker T finally got on the board in the fourth inning as Davin Gummere was walked, stole second, advanced to third on a sacrifice hit by DJ Hall, and stole home on a catcher's error with Mendenhall at bat.
Sand Springs wouldn't take that lying down, however, and scored three more that inning. Treyce Tolbert was walked once more and stole second, then came home on a triple by Trevor. The elder cousin would come home soon after on a groundball single from Josh Taber. Taber then took second on a left field fly from Rutledge and stole third, then home on a catcher's error. Rutledge stole second and third in pursuit of Taber, but was left stranded along with Ward (walked) after Montgomery was put out at first.
The fifth inning was devoid of hits from either team. Booker T put one runner on base in the sixth after a catcher's error, but he would be left stranded. Mack Thompson hit a double for the Sandites in his first and only at-bat, but was put out at third after a groundball by Taber. Taber, who plays wide-receiver for the State Runner-Up football team, continued to show off his quick feet as he stole second and third, but was left stranded along with Phillips who was walked.
The Hornets finally scored again in the seventh as Mendenhall was hit by a pitch and found his way home on a single by Ben Curry. Curry would be left stranded however as Ben Curry was put out at second on a single by Connor O'Malley. Their rally attempt fell short and the Sandites retained their standing as one of the teams to beat and brought home a memorable experience from a minor league field.
Baring a weather delay, the Sandites will next take on Enid (1-1) Tuesday night at 5:30 at the Sandite Athletic Complex.
