Winter Competition Has Just 1 Area Team Left
It seems like we slipped from winter to spring sports without get a chance to catch our breath.
Bartlesville High School’s baseball and soccer teams will have already played three and four times, respectively, by the end of the weekend.
Several other Bartlesville and other area teams have already parachuted into the war zone of competition.
The lone active vestige of the winter prep season still alive going into Saturday is the Oklahoma Union High School boys’ basketball team.
By late Saturday night, the Cougars will have either clinched a return trip to the 2A state tournament or will have written their final chapter.
The spring sports season will continue to gain traction next week — and then mostly shut down for spring break.
Once spring break concludes, it seems like the final week of March and most the month of April have more condensed sports action than any other comparative stretch in the high school athletic year.
OKWU on its way
Congratulations to the OKWU Eagles for earning a great seeding (No. 1 in their 16-team quadrant) in the NAIA men’s basketball tournament.
The fun and the challenge — which are often synonymous — begin.
OKWU will continue to have to take it one game at a time. If they do, and maintain their intensity and style, I like their chances of carving out success.
Oklahoma Wesleyan University basketball among top 4 seeds nationally
Oklahoma Wesleyan University finally knows the starting point for its safari to hunt down the NAIA men’s basketball national championship.
The NAIA tourney begins March 11 with 64 teams playing in four 16-team quadrants spread throughout all sectors of the nation.
Each quadrant will have four four-team sub-sites.
The format is single elimination.
“Every team in the tournament is good, they really are,” said OKWU head coach Donnie Bostwick, who served on the selection committee. “I’m very grateful and thankful that we’re playing and got that opportunity.”
OKWU (31-2) — which was ranked No. 3 in the nation in the latest NAIA poll — has been assigned to the Liston Quadrant and will play in the four-team sub-site in Park City, Kan.
OKWU is seeded No. 1 of the 16 teams in the quadrant.
Rounding out the Park City sub-site tournament are No. 8 IU South Bend (Ind.), No. 9 Kansas Wesleyan and No. 16 Saint Katherine (Calif.).
Make that four wins in a row for the red-hot softball team of Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
The Lady Eagles (8-3) swooped past Crowley’s Ridge, 8-0 and 4-3, during home doubleheader action earlier this week.
Next up, the Lady Eagles play in an Oklahoma City tournament.
Following are roundups of the games against Crowley Ridge.
OKWU wins, 8-0
Maddy Wiese snapped off a perfect no-hitter — with 12 strikeouts and 58 pitches — to propel OKWU to its seventh win.
Wiese also smacked a triple and plated a run.
Payton Langley added two doubles and two RBI’s; Sofia Cardenas doubled, singled twice and drove in a run; Ryleigh Clinton added two hits and two runs plated; and Bailey Zornes lifted a sacrifice fly for one RBI.
Baylee Knorr recorded OKWU’s other RBI.
OKWU wins, 4-3
Crowley Ridge regrouped and carried a 3-2 lead into the sixth inning.
BSB: Balanced Attack Leads
The Braves moved their winning streak to eight games with a come from behind victory over Avila University to open KCAC play on Tuesday at Alumni Park. Ottawa was down 7-1 entering the bottom of the fifth inning. That started a streak of 14 unanswered runs by OU. Ottawa had 17 hits and hits five home runs. Holland Boan and Matt Aguilar were a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate. Boan hit two home runs. Nicholas Sizemore hit the go ahead home run, finishing the game with three RBI. Jonah Weisner and Connor Jeffers had the other two home runs for the Braves. Creede Jeffers pitched in four innings in the win. He struck out five and only allowed three hits.
During Ottawa's eight game winning streak the Braves are hitting .372, have scored 86 runs, hit 27 doubles, one triple, 14 home runs, drove in 73 runs, has a .665 slugging percentage, walked 39 times, have been hit by a pitch 13 times, has a .478 on base percentage, and stolen 42 bases.
The OU pitching staff, during the eight game winning streak, has a 3.10 ERA, 82 strike outs, and opponents have a .221 batting average against the Brave pitchers.
Ottawa is ranked 34th in the NAIA in runs (127), 33rd in doubles (34), 14th in home runs (19), 39th in RBI (106), 28th in extra base hits (54), 43rd in total bases (229), ninth in sacrifice hits (9), seventh in stolen bases (53), eighth in caught stealing (12), 13th in batting average (.348), 14th in on base percentage (.460), fifth in slugging percentage (.586), 22nd in ERA (3.62), and 16th in opponent batting average (.221).
Holland Boan leads the Braves in batting average (.550) and RBI (21). Tyler Bryant is Ottawa's leader in ERA (0.64) and Hector Sepulveda leads OU in strike outs (33).
Ottawa is 5-15 against Oklahoma Wesleyan University but is on a two game winning streak against the Eagles. OU finished last season with a record of 3-1 against OKWU. Ottawa defeated, then no. 6, OKWU in the KCAC Tournament (6-3) on its way to the program's first NAIA Opening Round. The first meeting between the team happened during the 1999 season. Ottawa won the game 15-4.
Oklahoma Wesleyan University is 14-4 overall, 0-1 in the KCAC, and ranked no. 9 in the NAIA. OKWU has its seven game winning streak snapped on Tuesday afternoon. Friends University rallied to defeat Oklahoma Wesleyan, 11-9. OKWU had an 8-2 lead over the Falcons entering the bottom of the sixth inning when Friends scored nine straight runs to take the victory.
Through 18 games this season, OKWU has scored 180 runs, has a .323 batting average, a .458 on base percentage, a .490 slugging percentage and hit 15 home runs.
The Eagles are ranked 29th in the NAIA in at bats (567), ninth in runs (180), 19th in hits (183), 12th in doubles (44), 34th in home runs (15), 15th in RBI (144), 18th in extra base hits (62), 23rd in total bases (278), eighth in walks (106), sixth in hit by pitch (41), 48th in sacrifice flies (7), 41st in caught stealing (7), 36th in batting average (.323), 17th in on base percentage (.458), 40th in slugging percentage (.490), and 32nd in opponent batting average (.242).
BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – The Ottawa University baseball team defeated no. 9 Oklahoma Wesleyan University 7-1 in game one of their three game series on Friday afternoon. The win is OU's third straight against the Eagles and the Braves have won four out of the last five meetings between the two teams.
Ottawa broke a scoreless tie in the top of the third inning. Luis DeLeon led off the inning with a home run, giving OU a 1-0 lead. Zachary Spradlin singled and then advanced to third on a single by Jonah Weisner. Tyler Farnham hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Spradlin and the Braves led 2-0. Holland Boan followed that with a double, scoring Weisner and Ottawa led 3-0.
In the top of the fourth the Braves extended their lead. Nicholas Sizemore hit a leadoff home run to give OU a 4-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, the Eagles cut into the Brave lead., 4-1. The Braves earned that run back in the top of the fifth.
Farnham doubled, then advanced to third on a fly out by Boan. Connor Jeffers singled, scoring Farnham and Ottawa had a 5-1 lead. Ottawa pushed two more runs across in the top of the seventh. Spradlin was hit by a pitch. Two pitches later Weisner hit a home run and the Braves led 7-1.
Stephen Norrell pitched a scoreless eighth and Creede Jeffers came on in relief in the top of the ninth. It was a 1-2-3 inning for the OU defense as the Braves took the 7-1 victory.
Inside the Box Score
Ottawa had 11 hits in the win.
Jonah Weisner and Tyler Farnham led the Braves with two hits apiece. Weisner drove in two and scored twice. Farnham had an RBI and scored once.
Stephen Norrell pitched eight innings, striking out eight to get the win.
Creede Jeffers pitched the ninth, striking out one.