Ada buries Bishop McGuinness for regional title
Apr. 30—OKLAHOMA CITY — The odds were stacked against the Ada High School baseball team after dropping a tough 3-2 decision to Cache in the first round of the Class 5A Regional Tournament hosted by Bishop McGuinness High School.
Boy, did the Cougars beat those odds.
Ada won four straight contests to win the regional championship — including an impressive 15-2 shellacking of private-school powerhouse Bishop McGuinness in Friday night's title game.
The Cougars improved to 21-16 on the year and advanced to a best-of-3 Super Regional, likely to be played Thursday (with an if-necessary contest on Friday).
The Fighting Irish saw their season come to a shocking end at 23-10.
"Friday was the culmination of the best three days of pitching and offensive output that I have seen since I've been here at Ada — and it might be the best one my teams has ever produced. and I have been at this for a minute," Ada head coach Shane Coker told The Ada News.
The Cougars found themselves mired in an ugly 11-game winning losing streak that drug on through late in March. Even Coker thought maybe he had overestimated Ada's talent.
However, hard work finally started paying dividends for the Cougars. They turned things around, went on a seven-game winning streak, and have now won 19 of their past 24 contest.
"They played like the team I thought they were all year. The rough start had me wondering how I had missed the mark so badly. But since then, we have won 19 games and beat some really good people," Coker said.
The Cougars were also shorthanded on Friday after starting third baseman Kyler Gaddis was hit in the face by a pitch early in Ada's 11-1 win over Cache on Thursday. It is unclear if Gaddis will be available for this week's Super Regional.
"After losing Kyler Gaddis on Thursday (to a fastball to the face), we could have easily thrown in the towel and said, heck of a year and great finish. But it just made them hungrier," Coker said. "This last weekend is not just the team we are trying to build, but Ada athletics as a whole. It's been a really good year for the Cougars in general, no reason not to expect this every year and all the time."
Ada 15, McGuinness 2
Things didn't start well for the Cougars in Friday's if-necessary championship game. Peter Bilicki reached on an error to lead off the bottom of the first inning and Mikey Iglinski crushed a two-run homer over the left-field fence to put the host Fighting Irish on top 2-0.
However, Ada took over after exploding for nine runs in the top of the third inning.
Keith Cook cracked a one-out double to get the AHS uprising started and he scored on a base hit by Cade Stick that made it 2-1.
Brock Boyles then blasted a two-run homer to left field to put the Cougars ahead for good at 3-2. Boyles later capped off the third-inning surge with a two-RBI double that pushed the AHS advantage to 9-2.
The Cougars scored six more runs in the top of the fifth inning to end the game early.
Boyles paced a 13-hit Ada offense, going 3-for-4 with five RBIs. Keith Cook went 2-for-4 with a walk, a double, an RBI and three runs scored for Ada and Stick finished 3-for-3, drove in a run and scored a run.
Hunter McDonald ended up 1-for-4 with a walk, a double, two RBIs and a run scored.
Bradydon McGilbray drew a walk, was credited with three RBIs and scored twice for the Cougars and both JD Dugan and Reid Samson had one hit and scored two runs for the locals.
Elvis Edwards tossed five tidy innings to pick up the mound win for Ada. He struck out four, walked none and allowed one earned run.
Cooper Anderson had two of six total Bishop McGuinness hits.
Super Regional Pairings were expected to be announced at some point on Monday.
