Sterling give Rattan early trouble but falls short

EDMOND—Sterling head coach Jayson Wilson has a plan to rebuild the Tigers’ baseball program and while they were unable to stick with No. 1 Rattan in Monday’s Class A State championship game at Eddmond Santa Fe High, their march to the finals was a surprise among many state coaches.

Rattan completed a three-game sweep to the title with an 11-3 victory but there is always a huge benefit by coming in as the top seed. Rattan won games by the scores of 13-1 and 14-4 and that allowed the Rams to save their best pitchers.

But Wilson had to use his staff more in a tough 7-3 upset victory over Canute Sunday and that left him fewer options.

Monday the Tigers actually led in the early going after speedster Nate Anderson ripped a leadoff triple and later scored for a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.

But while the Tigers were able to get that run across, during a key stretch in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, they left six runners on base and the inability to get the clutch hit at the right time spelled trouble down the stretch.

Senior Jayden Huitt got the mound start for the Tigers but he was unable to keep the hot Rams’ bats silent and as the game progressed it was obvious that the powerful Rams just had a few more offensive threats in the lineup.

While Huitt and Anderson will graduate, Wilson will have a host of young players returning next season, plus more talent coming up from a good junior team.

The Tigers finished 26-3 and were ranked third entering the playoffs.