Eagles edge LHS, face Shawnee in Bowman semis today

Every team enters a tournament wanting to win a championship but coaches won’t often say what is on their minds, however, don’t put Eisenhower coach Eric Sows in that group; he’s going all out to claim the title in the 48th Annual Bo Bowman Tournament.

Friday the Eagles finally put away arch rival Lawton High, 8-6, to advance to today’s 1:30 p.m. semifinals against Shawnee, which eliminated MacArthur, 11-8, Friday afternoon. The other semifinal starts at 11 a.m. and matches Cache and Altus. Cache beat Apache while Altus ousted Big Pasture, 20-2. The semifinal losers meet for third place at 4 p.m. and the finals will begin at 6 p.m.

“We are going to go after the title; that’s what we came here to do,” Shows said. “We have our 1 and 2 starters in (Charlie) Trachte and (Eric) Rodriguez ready to go and we are going to give it our best and try to win this thing.”

It has been some time since the Eagles have won the Bowman and they got a big assist from a couple of young pitchers Friday night against LHS.

“Those two guys didn’t have much experience but they went out there are battled,” Shows said. “Dylan (McEunn) has pitched some at the varsity level but Hayden (Bortoff) had just pitched in JV games. The were throwing mostly fastballs and change-ups with Dylan throwing his curve which is tough to hit. They did what we needed them to do.

“We feel good about our chances because Shawnee has a tough district matchup Monday and Tuesday against Carl Albert and Altus has Elgin next week. Those are going to be tough games for both of those teams and they probably are going to be saving some arms for those district games.”

LHS played one of its better games of the season, jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first thanks to an RBI single from Quincy Golden-Lewis.

But the Eagles came back in the bottom of the first with five runs thanks in part to four walks and two hit-by-pitch free passes and a few hits mixed in to get runs across. Andre Armantine had a bloop single between the pitcher and second base that drove in a run, AJ Elkouri got an RBI when he was hit by a pitch and Trachte had a single to drive in the fifth run.

The Eagles added one run in the second that was unearned and they scored two more in the bottom of the third as Amantine drilled a double to bring both runners home after they had reached on a walk and another HBP.

The Wolverines were aided by walks and HBPs in the top of the fourth as they scored four runs. Nathan Hawzptia had a single to score the first run, Adrian Garrison got an RBI when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Golden-Lewis drove in a run with a single. The fourth run came across on a balk as LHS made things interesting, trailing by an 8-5 score.

LHS held Ike off the board in the bottom of the fourth and the Wolverines went back to work at the plate. Ike got the first out on a Bortoff strikeout but Bristol McClesky got a single in shallow center to get LHS in business. He moved to second on a fielder’s choice, took third on a passed ball and scored on another ball that got past the Ike catcher.

But Bortoff came back to get a pair of big strikeouts to end the game on the 2-hour time limit.

“Our guys were saying they were having trouble locating the ball tonight but I felt it was one of those things were our timing wasn’t quit right,” Shows said. “We didn’t have great swings at times but we got enough hits to get a win.”

Cache battles wind, Apache

Those who love the Bowman know that a major factor over the years has been the weather, with cold, red-hot temperatures, rain and of course the Oklahoma wind seemingly-always being a part of this tournament.

The wind Friday was a huge factor and it was how Cache handled that wind that allowed the Bulldogs to coast to their 12-0 run-rule win over Apache in the second game of the five-game schedule.

Cache coach Danny Lee loved the way pitcher Canden Hance and his defense just bowed up and didn’t let the win bother them.

“I thought Canden pitched really well; he was getting ahead in the count and making them swing at some pitches that were on the edge of the zone,” Lee said. “Our guys also did a good job of making some plays. The first time we got on the turf our guys were a little tentative but today we did a good job.”

The Bulldogs actually turned a nice double play in the bottom of the third to end the game on the run rule.

Offensively Cache scored four in the top of the first and added seven more in the top of the third to take the quick win.

Apache had actually completed a double play of its own to start the game as pitcher Zachary Roberts got a strikeout at the plate and they threw out a runner trying to steal second.

But Cache batters Colton Rother, Hance and Kyree Coleman each reached base on walks to load the bases. Leland Kowena hit a ball to short that was thrown wild at first to allow the initial run to score. Dunn Gillispie followed with a single that just fell in the wind to bring home two runs and Gunner Knees hit another ball the fell between the infield and outfield right behind second to plate the fourth run.

The Bulldogs then proceeded to blow the game open with the seven-run volley in the third that started when Kowena was hit by a pitch. Gillispie followed with a double that brought home the first run.

Knees then laid down a perfect bunt toward third for a single and Carter McKeown smashed a ground-rule double to right-center to bring home the second run. After another walk, Colton Hill hit a dribbler that went just inside the third-base foul line for a single that drove in the third run.

Rother followed with another ground-rule double, this one to left, which brought home the fourth and fifth runs and a wild pitch allowed the sixth run to score. Hance bounced a ball toward first for the second out of the inning but he was credited with the final RBI.

On the mound Hance wound up allowing just one hit, he fanned three and walked two to get the pitching win.

Lee said now it will be up to his other pitchers to get the job done during the semifinals Saturday.

“We have Purcell Monday and Tuesday, so the three guys I’ve pitched will be held back to go in those two district games,” Lee said. “We have some young pitchers who are going to get their chance and they just need to throw strikes and we have to play good defense behind them. This will be good experience for those guys.”