KHS gets first district victory

That first district win is elusive no more for the Kingfisher High School baseball team.

Behind a pitching gem from Cooper Henley - and solid defense behind him - the Jackets went on the road Tuesday to grab a 7-1 victory against Woodward.

“There have been times this year where we just haven’t looked very good,” said Stan Blundell, whose youthful squad improved to 2-11 overall.

“But our last three games we’ve looked like a young team that’s figuring some things out. Our youth shows every now and then, but we’ve been playing good for stretches.”

The two previous games were losses of 5-3 to Jones the previous Friday and 1-0 to Woodward at home on Monday.

In the return trip to Woodward, the Jackets struck quickly with two runs in the top of the first inning.

Brett Calamateo led off with a walk, was pushed to second with a sacrifice bunt by Trypp Lack and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

Kaden Cline, who reached on an error, scored on a sacrifice fly by Henley.

That was all the support Henley needed.

The junior right hander gave up a run in the bottom of the first, but nothing else over his six innings of work.

He struck out nine batters while scattering six hits.

Christian Farrell closed out the game with a hitless seventh inning.

The Jackets got insurance runs in the second, fourth and sixth innings.

There was a common theme in the innings that Kingfisher put up a number.

“In every inning that we got down a sacrifice bunt, we scored,” said Blundell.

In the third it was Chace Cooper getting one down to push Sloan Merrill from second to third after Merrill led off with a double.

Merrill scored on Farrell’s groundout for a 3-1 lead.

There was some history repeating itself in the fourth when Merrill again led off with a two-bagger.

He was eventually pushed to third on Jagger Braun’s bunt.

Later in the inning, Lack cleared the full bases with a double to make it 6-1.

Braun again had a sacrifi ce bunt in the seventh to advance two runners.

One was Brody Boeckman, who later scored on Calamateo’s groundout.

The Jackets had four total hits, two by Merrill.

Lack finished the game with 3 RBIs while Calamateo and Merrill both scored two runs.