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By: Staff Reports
Posted April 4, 2009
The Blue Jays played in the annual Choctaw baseball tournament this week and played hard, but still finished the tournament with an 0-3 record. The tournament consisted of six 6A teams with 5A Guthrie and Carl Albert Titians rounding out the eight team field. The Jays were grouped with the Sand Springs Sandites, Ponca City Wildcats, and Choctaw Yellow Jackets in Pool A
This annual tournament was played in memory of long time
Choctaw assistant Jamie Cook. Cook, who played college baseball at Oklahoma
State University, was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident last summer.
The 'Jays started out the tournament with a tough draw of playing the sixth ranked Sand Spring Sandites, who coach Jon Chappell called, “one of the best teams he as seen in person in awhile.” The Jays seemed defeated from the first pitch and never got anything started, losing 0-10 in four innings.
On a cold Thursday night in Choctaw, senior Clayton “Cowboy” Lawson, might have turned in the most impressive pitching performance of the season on only two days rest against the Ponca City Wildcats. He struck out 11 batters in six innings, but gave up four runs to receive the loss with the final score of 4-1. The Jays bats were as cold as the weather only managing two hits in the seven inning game.
Senior, T.J Bross had a strong pitching performance against a very talented Choctaw Yellow Jackets in the 9-6
loss, Friday evening, giving up five runs on five hits, keeping Choctaw off balance all game until running out of gas in the 6th inning. In the bottom of the sixth, the Jays were ahead 6-5, but Bross was touched for four runs before being pulled for junior, Corbin Crocket, who struck out the final batter of the inning.
Aaron Womack, John Cotton, and Blake Calvert were all 2-3 in the contest, while Luke Davis was 3-3. If there is such a thing, this might have been the best loss of the season. The Jays played as a team for the entire game never giving up.
The Jays have had a tough and enduring schedule so far this season which shows by their 4-11 record, playing just about every game against a top ten ranked appointed according to coachesaid.com. Junior John Cotton thinks the team will be turning the season around soon.
“It has been a tough beginning of the season, but I like everyone on the team and we will get better,” said the three hole for the Jays. “We just have to play as a team, we have to get out of the me way of thinking, and start playing as team, and I include myself in that, we have to do better for the team,” Cotton added.
“I will put our first 15 games up against anyone in the state,” said Chappell. The Jays are a pretty young team with three "pups", what Chappell calls freshmen, making impacts on the season. With the leadership from juniors, Crockett and Cotton and continued strong pitching performances from seniors Lawson and Bross, the Jays should be showing a noticeable improvement in the second half of the season.
The Jays return to action on Monday, April 6th, against yet another ranked team with Class 4A's 10th ranked Bishop McGuinness Irish and Tuesday, April 7th, against the Harrah Panthers both at home starting at 4:30. Come out and support the Jays!
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