Fletcher Gold captures 10U State crown

SALLISAW—It’s not often that a 10U baseball player has the courage to call time and ask his coach to come out for a visit, however, that trip to the mound offered just the plan for Fletcher Gold to finally subdue the Hobart Hitmen and capture the OK Kids 10U State championship Saturday afternoon at the Sallisaw Sports Complex.

Hobart had a good deal of momentum after scoring seven runs in the final inning of the semifinals to advance to the title game and when the Hitmen scored a run in the bottom of the fourth, things were getting dicey as the Wildcats were nursing a 4-3 lead.

“In the bottom of the fourth and they had a kid stick his bat out and get a single down the line to give them a run and make it 4-3,” Fletcher coach Hayden Herrin said. “In the bottom of the fifth their 4-hole hitter was up with two outs and Zeke calls time and asks me to come out there to the mound. I get out there and he tells me he wants to intentionally walk that batter and pitch to the lefty, the kid who got the hit in the fourth. He said he wanted to jam the guy and get him out with inside pitches and that’s what we did.

“Now, that’s not what you would normally expect from a 10U player, but Zeke knows the game pretty well and he knows his best pitches and he wanted to play it that way. This whole group of kids knows the game of baseball and that makes coaching them fun. They have really been into this season because they remember losing in the finals last year and they were determined to come back and get it done this time and they did just that.”

Fletcher got on the board first when Kinsler Thornton singled home a run in the first inning and in the third Silas Weishaupt singled and Kinsler earned his way on base with a walk and both wound up scoring to run the lead to 3-0.

Kyler McCracken started on the mound for Fletcher and allowed two hits in two innings of work. He struck out three and didn’t walk a batter. Herrin came on and finished the game, allowing three hits and three runs, one which was earned. He fanned five and walked two.

“I started Kyler and he really pitched well,” Herrin said. “Hobart had that big rally to win in the semifinals and we knew we had to contend with that excitement and momentum. I figured we’d go with Kyler through the order the first time and then bring Zeke in for a change of pace. He did a pretty good job but he left a few pitches high and they were able to get some hits. But we played good defense and we didn’t walk anyone and that’s what you have to do at this level.”