WEEKEND WALLOPALOOZA: Doenges team, UL and Smiles shine during local baseball marathon

A non-stop weekend of baseball at Rigdon Field/Doegnes Stadium netted some rip-roarin’ success for the Bartlesville Doenges Ford Indians.

The 19-U/college league team put up some noxious numbers to knock about its two most feisty Sooner State rivals — the Ada Braves and Three Rivers Bandits.

The Doenges Boys ripped the ball with predatory intent,  painstakingly stalking each pitch, ready to pounce on it like a piranha on a discarded hot dog.

The Indians racked up a total 49 runs in four of the games — an average of 12.3 per contest. Although they got throttled against the Ft. Smith (Ark.) Sportsman club, 15-3, the Indians (3-2) still average more than 10 runs per game on the opening weekend of the season.

Bartlesville — which is guided by veteran manager John Pannell — opened its tourney odyssey by brooming the Ada Braves, 12-4 and 14-2. Ft. Smith then run-ruled the Indians in a game that had been close through the halfway point, 16-3.

The Indians bounced back Sunday. They came up a hit short in an 11-10 loss to the Bandits, but powered back to beat the Bandits in the nightcap, 13-6.

As a team, the Indians recorded 34-of-120 at the plate, two triples, two homers and 20 stolen bases.

Take away the Fort Smith game and stats modified to 30-of-104, two triples, two homers and 20 stolen bases.

No single Indian batter duplicated Evan McClendon’s plate dominance.

The first-year Bartlesville player exploded into the consciousness of Indian fans.

He hammered the ‘hide at a more than .600 batting clip (10-of-16), and tallied two triples, a grand slam homer, 11 runs scored and six RBIs from the leadoff spot.

Returning Indian Karson Lee muscled up like Samson, pounding five hits and driving in six runs in the opening two games.

The tourney included more than 10 teams and featured 20-plus contests.

Two other participating teams in the Bartlesville American Legion-affiliated program were the United Linen Braves (17-and-under) and Safari Smiles (15-and-under). They played seven games between them.

Following are summaries of some of them.

Indians 12, Ada 4

Ada snuck out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. The Indians snapped back by scoring in every inning to post the run rule.

In his Doenges debut, McClendon mashed two hits, stole three bases and scored twice. Lee lashed a two-run triple for what would be the game-winning hit.

Kaeden Young, also a first-year Indians, had a direct hand in five runs and received credit for two RBIs. In the bottom of the first, he hit into a fielder’s choice that allowed both Daniel Barham and Lee to score to put the Indians ahead, 3-2. He scored in the second inning on Kael Siemers’ sacrifice fly. Young scored again in the fourth inning, on a passed ball.

And, in the bottom of the fifth, Young drew a wild pitch that allowed Lee to gallop home for the game-ending run.

Luke Fox also contributed a RBI to round out the Indians’ main offensive contributors.

McClendon and Young stole three and two bases, respectively. Cole Hancock also pilfered a bag.

Alan Covarrubias threw solidly for the Indians. Covarrubias gave up just one earned run, three shutout innings and struck out four.

Indians 14, Ada 2

McClendon unleashed a three-hit barrage, including a triple, and scored three runs.

Fox and Lee amassed three RBIs each and Haden Fiddler drove in two runs.

Jace Thompson walked twice, stole a base and crossed home plate two times. Keegan Woods and John Reed also contributed to the runs scored total.

Another new Indian player, Matt Winters, threw four solid innings as the starter. He didn’t allow an earned run (two unearned) and struck out nine batters.

Closer Hayden Catlin turned in two shutout innings, with four K’s and no walks.

Ft. Smith 15, Indians 3

Through two innings the teams battled to a 1-1 tie.

The Sportsman offense spurted to a 9-1 lead in the top of the third. That was pretty much the swan song symphony for the Indians.

Barham recorded Bartlesville’s only RBI. McClendon, Lee and Fiddler scored one run apiece.

Harrison Clark also was hit with a pitch.

Hancock suffered a tough-luck outing on the bump. Ft. Smith scored nine runs in 2.2 innings on him — but only one of the runs was earned. Hancock struck out four.

Catlin and Clark finished up in relief. Clark struck out — on three pitches — the only batter he faced.

Three Rivers 11, Indians 10

Weird, weird, weird, weird, weird.

That’s probably the most apropos characterization of this game, decided by a spate of big innings.

The Indians surged to a 6-0 lead in bottom of the second on a five-run splurge.

But, Three Rivers rock and rolled to a 9-6 lead in the top of the fifth.

The Bandits increased their lead in the top of the seventh to 11-6.

However, the Indians had one final explosive comeback left. They scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh, and put the potential tying and winning run in scoring position. But, Three Rivers finally ended it by getting the last Indian batter to line out to center field.

McClendon mashed a grand slam in the second inning to help the Indians take early control. He finished with two hits in the game.

Clark, Thompson and Woods each drove in one run.

Down by five runs going into the bottom of the seventh, the Indians started their final rally with a walk by Brendan Asher and a single by McClendon.

Fox then reached on an error, loading the bases for Clark.

Clark reached on a seeing-eye pop fly — with the ball being battered in the air by a stiff wind to elude the defense — to drive in Asher.

After the next Indian struck out, Thompson walked to force home McClendon and trim the lead to 11-8, with the bases still juice.

The next Indian hitter went down on strikes for the second out, but the Indians kept the uprising alive when Woods walked to push home Fox.

That brought up Hancock. He reached on an error that plated Clark to slice the Bandits’ lead to one run 11-10, with the tying run on third and winning run on second.

But, the next batter lined out and the Indians had to settle for the close loss, but with a kind of moral victory.

Indians 13, Three Rivers 6

Another patchwork game that ended with a late heavy punch.

Bartlesville bolted to a 3-0 lead — only to see Three Rivers forge back to force a 6-6 tie by the top of the sixth.

The Doenges Boys made huge noise with seven runs in the bottom of the sixth and held on.

McClendon tripled and Clark clobbered a three-run homer to fuel the Indians’ offense.

Asher, Hancock, Reed, Thompson and McClendon plated one run apiece.

The Indians also produced plenty of grit at the plate with four hit batsmen — Clark, Lee, Reed and Woods.

Josh Weber snapped off a solid starting showing on the mound — 4.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K.

Fiddler and Winters both pitched strong in relief.

Tulsa SC Gray 12, Braves 0

The Bartlesville United Linen Braves got off to a tough start — requiring surgery on one of their tootsies after shooting themselves in the foot.

The Braves made five errors — resulting in 11 unearned runs by the Gray.

Kaleb Bashford and Jaxon Zaun each ripped a hit for United Linen.

Dirty Birds 14, Braves 7

Bartlesville made plenty of noise — and showed more than a little poise. After the Birds zipped to a 6-0 lead, the Braves outscored them in the middle two innings, 7-5.

Bashford proved to be a run machine — he drove in five RBIs. Payton Lemons scored twice.

United Linen cut its errors to two and didn’t give up an unearned run.

Braves 8, Tulsa SC Red 7

For the first time on the weekend the Braves scored first — and they made it stick. Tulsa rallied into the lead, 6-5, in the fourth. But, the Linen Lads rallied for three runs the final two innings and held on.

Daygan West and Carson Leach both doubled and drove in two and one runs, respectively.

Bashford extended his hitting streak to three straight games.

Zaun stole three bases, Dryden was hit by a pitch and Sam Hill reached on an error.

Leach threw a scoreless inning. Zaun and Bashford also pitched.

Braves 7, Tulsa SC Blue 6

Comeback City.

Trailing 6-2 after five innings, the Braves scored five times in the top of the sixth and overcame five errors for the game.

Luke Fox lashed a double and a single drove in two runs. Masyn Dryden also plated two runs. Lemons and Benton Blasi each plated one tally.

Fox, Christian Hernandez and Dryden each pitched. Fox whiffed five batters in three innings. Dryden snapped off a scoreless inning of relief.

Safari Smiles

Newborn history went through some growing pains last weekend. The freshly-formed Safari Smiles — a 15-and-under baseball team — finished 0-3 in the tourney. But, the squad had some moments to grin about.

On Sunday, they played a 17-and-U team tight most the way, trailing only 3-0 after five innings. The other team tacked on five late runs.

“We played them really tough,” Smiles coach John Whitworth said.

Luke Fox, actually playing down from older Bartlesville teams, made six putouts from center field. Grant Clark “pitched a really strong game,” Whitworth said. “I’ve been working with him two years and this was probably his strongest pitching performance I’ve seen.”

Barrett Merciez, Hunter Shay and Thatcher Parker hit the ball hard throughout the weekend.

Other tourney highlights included the play of Parker Cole in center and a two-RBI hit by Grant Foote.

“The improvement from just Friday to Sunday was immense,” Whitworth said. “From the starting point of the genesis of a program they’ve got a chance to do something special.”

The Safari squad is slated to be home Thursday evening, weather permitting.

Other results

The Three Rivers Bandits finished 2-2 on the weekend.

They started out by crushing the Ada Braves 10-0, and downed the Indians, 11-10.

They lost in a second game to the Indians, 13-6 and fell to the Ft. Smith (Ark.) Sportsman, 19-6.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Legion baseball: Busy weekend for Bartlesville-area teams