MANSFIELD, Texas — The Oklahoma Age 13-and-Younger USSAA All-State baseball team won the national title this past weekend.
Team Oklahoma defeated Arizona 10-8 in extra innings. The players received two rings, two jerseys, a cage jacket and a hat.
Team Oklahoma opened the tournament with two days worth of poolplay games, in which it went 3-1 — beating Alabama by a score of 13-0, Team USSAA comprised of players from different states by a score of 9-4 and routing Kansas 14-4. The lone loss was 2-1 to Iowa, but Team Oklahoma did well enough to get the No. 3 seed for the championship bracket.
Team Oklahoma opened the championship bracket with a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Arizona, bumping the team into the consolation portion.
The following day, Team Oklahoma ended up playing four total games, with the fourth game being the game for the national championship.
Team Oklahoma defeated Texas 132, Iowa 5-4 and Virginia 6-2 to make it to the finals.
In the national title game, Vian’s Chris Cheater hit a two-run home run to knot the game at 8 to force extra innings. Then, an RBI single by Sallisaw’s Luke Warner and an RBI groundout by Stilwell’s John Coombes put Team Oklahoma ahead 10-8. Vian’s Jeremiah Marshall retired Arizona in order in its half of the inning to send the championship to Oklahoma.
In the loss to Kansas, the Team Oklahoma pitching duo of Wister’s Easton Turnipseed and Sallisaw’s Keifer Bailey were the misfortunate ones of seeing their teammates leave too many runners on base and not producing the key hits at the right times.
In the win over Alabama, Stilwell’s Kade Sanders and Vian’s Zayden Cheater each hit two home runs, while Chris Cheater got the win and Zayden Cheater the save.
In the victory over Team USSAA, Stigler’s Kaden Ross got the win, with Marshall getting the save.
In the win over Kansas, Stilwell’s Micah Sawney hit a home run. Stilwell’s Brock Cochran got the win, with Warner recording the save.
In the loss to Arizona to begin championship bracket play, Arizona got a walk-off victory thanks to a tworun double. Bailey, Cheater and Turnipseed all took turns on the mound, but, just as in the loss to Iowa, Team Oklahoma could not get the key runproducing hits with runners in scoring position.
In the rout of Texas, Marshall got the win, with Warner getting the save.
In the victory over Iowa, Sanders hit his second homer of the tournament, a two-run shot, in the final inning for a 5-4 lead. Chris Cheater got the pitching victory.
In the win over Virginia, Team Oklahoma jumped out to an early lead, and the pitching of Ross did the rest.
In between the two days of poolplay games, all the tournament teams got to parade around Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, before the host Texas Rangers took on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The team could make this championship tournament a reality thanks to a few fundraisers, but Bryan Warner, E.O. Smith, and the Cherokee Nation played a big part in making this happen. Matt Cochran and Vian Youth Baseball helped provide a lot of assistance as well.
Coaches were Justus Christie, Manuel Terrill and Mark Cochran.
