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By: Chris Evans
In the first 75 minutes of the Guthrie-Deer Creek baseball game it was a pitching showcase, but the last 30 minutes would proved to be unbelievable. Unfortunately, some fans did not see it coming in one of the best high school games you will see.
With Guthrie down to their final two outs in the game and trailing 3-0, the Jays would use the long ball to come back and defeat county line rival Deer Creek 5-3 with sophomore's Jaden Chappell 2-run walk off homerun in the seventh with fewer people in the stands then at the beginning of the game.
Chappell's heroics were setup up by Guthrie junior ace Clayton Lawson and sophomore John Cotton.
Deer Creek pitcher Derek Vaughn, who through six innings allowed no runs and just one hit. In fact, Vaughn would allow just two balls to leave the infield while striking out 6 Guthrie batters. However, the Jays would erupt with 5-runs on 3-hits, including two of those for homeruns.
Trailing 3-0 with 1-out, Guthrie catcher Sean Ellis was hit by a pitch and soon after J Hensley collected his second hit of the game to put runners on first and second and 1-out. Cotton came to the plate and on a 3-1 count would send Vaughn's pitch into the Guthrie horizon over the left field fence in a NO doubter of a 3-run, game tying round tripper. Vaughn would then retire the side to send the game into extra innings.
Lawson, who himself was pitching a gem of a game, got the lead off batter, Conner Patterson, out in the top of the 8th, but Zach King would reach on an error in the next at bat. Guthrie head coach Jon Chappell elected to intentional walk the Antler's leading hitter on the year, Vaughn, to put runners on first and second. Lawson would then get to an 0-2 count on the clean-up hitter Matt Fream before being relieved by Corbin Crockett.
Crockett would force Fream in a pop-up on the infield and would then strike-out Cale Coshow to retire the Antelrs in the eighth. Coshow, in the fourth inning, broke a 0-0 tie with a 2-run homer over the right field fence.
Vaughn would go out to pitch the bottom of the eighth and would get Ashton Morgan out with a fly ball to right, but would hit Crockett to put the winning run on base.
Many were expecting (okay everyone was expecting) Crockett to be off and running trying to steal second base, in which, drew Vaughn to throw over to first base multiple times. Vaughn's first pitch to Jaden Chappell and Crockett took off, but the Antler catcher was unable to retrieve the ball and Crockett stood at second base.
Jaden Chappell would then take Vaughn's pitch over the left center field wall to give the Jays their 12th win on the year. Deer Creek now drops to 17-8 on the year and will have another shot at the Jays, on Tuesday, when the Jays travel to Deer Creek.
Lawson pitched 7 and a third of a inning and gave up 6-hits, 2-earned runs, and struck out 8 Antlers. However, Crockett got the win despite only throwing to two batters.
Guthrie Sports Page has post game interviews with Jaden Chappell, John Cotton, and Jon Chappell on our podcast page and offers the 7th and 8th innings as heard on Triple Play Sports 105.1 FM. Please visit the Baseball or Home pages for those podcasts.
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