Bears show poise in rematch win over Bombers
May 3—After a disappointing end to its first game against Midwest City, Noble was in danger of getting off to a nightmare start to the rematch Friday afternoon.
Facing elimination in their home regional, the Bears walked four of the first five batters to load up the bases and allow the first run to score. The day before, the Bombers hit a grand slam late in the game to hand the Bears their first loss.
Noble head coach Erik Hughes made a change at pitcher, bringing in sophomore Trent Shortes in a critical situation. Shortes didn't flinch, striking out the next two batters to end the inning.
Noble took the lead with two runs in the second inning and scored seven runs over the final three frames in a 9-4 win.
Shortes pitched six and 2/3 innings and allowed just three runs on three hits in the win.
"He was big for us today," Hughes said about Shortes. "To be able to come in and stop the bleeding and even have a little bit of failure himself, but to overcome it, I can't say enough about the kid. He pitches his heart out and just being a sophomore, that's big for us."
The Bombers were able to get at least two runners on base in five of seven innings, but the Bears left eight runners stranded. Shortes only struck out three batters and walked four, but never lost composure on the mound and kept the Bombers' hitters off rhythm.
"We were giving them a bunch of free passes, just trying to throw strikes and let them hit it," Shortes said about the first inning.
But the Bears had great pitching in Thursday's loss, too. On Friday, it was the resurgence of the offense that helped keep the season alive.
Noble only had two hits in its first game against the Bombers. In the second game, the Bears did everything they could to maximize their opportunities to score.
They were aggressive on the base paths, bunted to move runners and forced the Bombers to play mistake-free baseball.
"I said before the game we're going to be aggressive, we're going to make them get us out," Hughes said. "Luckily here and there they didn't do it. We're going to stay aggressive and keep playing our game."
Noble scored its nine runs on just six hits. Hayden Clement and Bryson Carey each accounted for two of the team's eights steals.
"We got the timely hits that we didn't get yesterday," Hughes said. "The kids were a little bit more intense today. I challenged them before the game and they accepted the challenge. I couldn't be more proud."
With the win, the Bears set up a win-or-go-home rematch with the Bombers on Saturday with a spot in the state tournament on the line.
First pitch is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at Noble High School.
Tarik Masri is the sports editor for The Transcript covering OU athletics and area sports. You can reach him by emailing tarik@normantranscript.com
