On a beautiful day for baseball in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the Enid Plainsmen needed an extra inning to pull off a huge win against district opponent Bartlesville. The win is Enid’s 13th in their last 15 contests and their 6th in a row. The win also keeps Enid in the running for the top spot in the district as the regular season will come to an end in just a couple of weeks.
However, last night’s game was certainly no picnic. Things started out great for the Plainsmen as they right off the bat got things going with a 2 run top of the 1st inning thanks to 3 straight hits (with 2 outs) by McCage Hartling, Jake Kennedy, and Brock Slater. With the ace Jake Kennedy going to the mound…things felt really good early on for the Plainsmen as Kennedy was coming in off his 14K 1-hitter against Bixby just 1 week prior. But the beautiful (and some times frustrating) thing about baseball is that you’re only as good as that pitcher on that day. And yesterday, Jake didn’t have his A stuff. That coupled with Bartlesville’s ability to play small ball in the 1st 2 innings…the Plainsmen found their 2 run lead wiped away by the end of the 2nd inning.
Then after a Jake Kennedy error in the 4th to move a runner into scoring position, the Bruins were able to take the lead thanks to an RBI single by their 2nd Baseman Brett Eaves. Now, it was time for the Plainsmen to respond. However, that was easier said than done as Bartlesville starter Zeb Henry was locked in. The Plainsmen were held scoreless from the 1st inning on as they had a couple of chances to get things going in the 5th and 6th. But those chances were quickly extinguished and the Plainsmen were left with just 3 outs to try and tie or take the lead.
Bennett Percival started the 7th inning with a lead off single and was able to move to 2nd on a passed ball by the catcher. After a Karter Simon strikeout, the Plainsmen were able to finally break through as Dallas Goodpasture poked a single into left field and Percival came racing around from 2nd to tie the game at 3. The Plainsmen didn’t score anymore runs in the 7th and it was up to Cooper Jarnigan to try and send this game to extras.
Jarnigan came into the game in the 6th inning after Kennedy had thrown 100+ pitches in 5 innings of work and threw a scoreless inning. However, Jarnigan walked the 1st batter in the bottom of the 7th and then (after a popout) hit a batter to put 2 runners on with just 1 out. Head Coach Brad Gore wasn’t going to take any chances and came out and pulled Jarnigan and went to Aidan Robinson out of the pen to try and send it to extras. Robinson definitely had a lot of adrenaline going as he threw a wild pitch on his first pitch of the game to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd. So Gore intentionally walked Brendan Asher to set up an out at every base with 1 out. However, Robinson was not startled by the bases loaded situation and despite going to a 3 ball count on each of the next 2 batters, Robinson was able to retire the next 2 batters without giving up a run to send it to extras.
The momentum from getting out of a bases loaded 1 out situation carried over into the next inning and Garrett Shull (who was 0-for-3 at that point in the game) blasted a ball over the wall in right center field to give Enid the 4-3 lead. The HR was Shull’s 8th on the season and the entire team was pumped up to a whole new level as he rounded the bases and stomped on home plate. The Plainsmen followed that with 3 hits in their next 5 batters as Bennett Percival was able to bring home another run on an RBI single to give the Plainsmen a 5-3 lead. Aidan Robinson came back out for the bottom of the 8th and despite giving up a leadoff single…was able to slam the door and give the Plainsmen their 9th win on the year in district play.
The Plainsmen currently sit at 9-2 on the year in district play and are just 1 game back of Tulsa Union for the top spot in the district. The Plainsmen are in sole possession of 2nd place in the district and are 1 game ahead of Bixby for that spot (Enid holds the tiebreaker as well). Enid and Bartlesville will do battle again tonight at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in another important district game. That one will get underway at 5PM and you’ll be able to listen to that game on CTB Sports 1640/1390AM and enidlive.com.
You can listen to highlights of last night’s Plainsmen win below.
