BASEBALL: Claremore starts 1-1 at Southeast Shootout

Mar. 19—It might not have Alabama's beautiful beaches or relaxing coastal breezes, but Broken Bow does feature one of the premier baseball tournaments in Oklahoma.

Breaking tradition, Claremore baseball opted for an in-state adventure this spring break, forgoing the familiar sands of Gulf Shores, Ala. — where the Zebras have competed in the Gulf Coast Classic for years — to instead venture about four hours southeast to Broken Bow for the Southeast Shootout.

Claremore split its first two games of the tournament, securing a decisive 12-2 victory over Lindsay on Monday before narrowly falling 4-3 on Tuesday to Duncan, which won the Class 5A state championship two years ago. The Zebras (9-2) close out play at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday against Valliant.

CLAREMORE 12, LINDSAY 2

Claremore had a wealth of big plays, tallying a triple and two doubles on the way to a seven-hit outing.

Marcos Sallee was the first Zebra to notch a multibag hit, doubling to center field on the first pitch of the at-bat early in the first inning. Two pitches later, Zach Hale singled him home to put Claremore in front 1-0.

The other two momentous knocks came during a five-run sixth for the Zebras, with Dan Harrington scoring Hale with a double to right field before Connor Rowe tripled in Tyson Grimett with a fly ball to right field, increasing the lead to 10-4.

Harrington scored on a sacrifice fly from Kellen Gaede between those hits, and Rowe found home on an error before Brad Hoisington drove in the final run of the game with a sac fly, scoring Gunner Holm.

Lindsay evened the tally in the first when Nathan Cottrell stole home, but Gaede put Claremore ahead once more in the second when Izaak McMahan grounded into a fielder's choice. Rowe then pushed the edge to 3-1, scoring on an error.

The Leopards stole home again in the second, but Rowe's insurance run kept the Zebras in the lead.

Neither team scored again until the fifth when Claremore racked up four runs to end the drought. Saxton Pickup singled in Layne Rice, and the trio of Rowe, McMahan and Grimett later scored on the same error to make it a 7-2 spread.

The Zebras followed that flurry with their sixth-inning explosion, putting the game out of reach for good. Harrington earned the win on the mound in a complete-game effort, tossing four strikeouts while allowing four hits and five walks on 96 pitches.

Lindsay used three pitchers, with Melvin McDonald taking the loss after surrendering five runs, three hits and five walks with four strikeouts on 81 pitches through four innings.

DUNCAN 4, CLAREMORE 3

After what felt like an eternity locked in a stalemate, Duncan's fortunes took a positive turn with a stroke of luck.

With the game tied at 3 in the top of the 11th inning, Chago Barham scored the game-winning run on a passed ball that ultimately handed Claremore only its second loss of the season. The Zebras had a chance to respond in the bottom half, but a strikeout followed by fly and pop outs ended the extra-inning contest.

Before what turned into a five-inning standoff between the teams, Claremore rallied from a 3-1 deficit to knot the score in the fifth. Hale's line-drive double to left field did the trick, scoring Sallee before Tyler Osgood found home thanks to an error from the shortstop.

Eli Ramirez scored the first run of the game when Jeffry Cross grounded into a fielder's choice in the first, and a sac fly from Brisco Smith drove in Preston Giles to make it 2-0 in favor of the Demons.

Hale cut into the deficit with a single in the bottom half, scoring Hoisington, and that is where the tally would stay until Cross struck again in the fifth with an RBI single to right field.

Hale led the Zebras at the plate, accounting for two of their five hits. He saw time on the mound as well, but Grimett took the loss after a commendable 5.2-inning effort that saw him throw 42 strikes on 79 pitches for one strikeout while allowing three hits, one run and four walks.

Cross finished 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs for Duncan, and Ramirez added an additional two hits while Raymond Garland was rewarded the win after throwing six strikeouts on 83 pitches, surrendering three hits and three walks through 6.1 innings.

Smith tossed eight strikeouts on 87 pitches through 4.2 innings, allowing two hits and four walks.