Huskies to host baseball tourney
Pawhuska will be hosting a high school baseball tournament Thursday through Saturday at the 15th Street ball field, according to Brian Edwards, head coach of the PHS Huskies.
Teams entered in the tourney include the Pawhuska varsity and jayvee squads, as well as Caney Valley, Hominy, Shidler, Newkirk, Pawnee and the Cleveland junior varsity.
The Huskies are looking to begin building some momentum as the 2014 campaign moves into April.
PHS’s varsity squad started the week with a 1-5 season record. On Monday, the Huskies notched their second win of the year with a 7-2 road triumph over the Tonkawa Buccaneers. A home contest Tuesday against the Blackwell Maroons will lead up toward the opening of the tourney on Thursday.
Last week, upon their return from spring break, the Huskies faced a double dose of diamond reality in home-and-away games against the third-ranked team in Oklahoma Class 3A, the Sperry Pirates.
A quality pitching start by Pawhuska ace righthander Tyler Culver kept the visitors in check through the early innings of their initial meeting Tuesday, March 25, but Sperry finally broke things open en route to a 13-0 triumph.
On Friday, Pawhuska fell six runs behind in the rain-delayed opening inning of a reprise encounter Friday at Bill Fisher Field in Sperry. The Huskies managed to put three runs on the board before the Pirates ended the contest in four innings, 11-3.
Connor McNeil and Chandler Collins had two hits apiece for PHS, which also got a base hit from Kylar Moody. McNeil scored a pair of runs and Moody came home with the other.
Sperry collected eight safeties and benefited from 14 bases on balls and a hit batsmen in earning its 12th win of the year in 15 outings. Sophomore lefthander Collins started on the mound for Pawhuska. He was relieved by McNeil, Hayden Javellas and Hayden Henley.
The seventh- and eighth-grade Huskies played their way to the championship game of last week’s Pawhuska Junior High School Baseball Tournament. Blackwell won the tourney title with a 6-3 decision in Saturday’s final.
On Thursday, April 10, the PJHS squad is to compete in a tournament at Oklahoma Union. Also that day, the Oklahoma Union Cougars’ varsity will visit Pawhuska for a game with the Huskies.
