KHS seniors earn baseball All-State

Kingfisher’s success on the baseball diamond has helped result in two players being named All-State selections for the first time in the program’s history.

Logan Rutledge was picked as a catcher and Zach Goodwin an outfielder for the Middle West when the teams were announced last week by the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association.

The two will take part in a new format for baseball All-State games.

Their Middle West squad will take on selections from the Middle East, which represents Classes 2A, 3A and 4A, at the inaugural OBCA All-State games June 2 at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid.

That game is scheduled for 4 p.m.

They’ll be joined by KHS head coach Stan Blundell. He was picked as one of the Middle West coaches along with Harrah’s Charles Copeland.

Traditionally, baseball All-State games were a part of the Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State week in Tulsa the last week in July. However, in an effort to increase participation and reward more players, the OBCA opted to go with the new format, which will also feature games between the small schools (A and B) at 1 p.m. and large schools (5A and 6A) at 7 p.m.

Rutledge and Goodwin helped lead KHS to not just its most successful season ever, but also the best stretch in school history.

In their four years, Kingfisher won 108 games. In the last three seasons alone, KHS was 92-23, setting a school record for wins in 2017 (30) and again this year (33).

Rutledge was a stalwart behind the plate during that entire stretch, including this season when he caught 254 of Kingfisher’s 261 total innings.

Forty-four runners attempted to steal against him, but only 19 were successful as he threw out 25 of them.

Rutledge picked off another five runners.

At the plate, he batted .299. He was second on the team with three home runs and tied for second with 13 doubles.

Rutledge drove in 28 runs, scored 27 and was third on the team with a .561 slugging percentage.

Goodwin split his time primarily between third base and left field for KHS during his senior season.

He had a .900 fielding percentage.

Offensively, he was at or near the top of team standings in nearly every category.

He was first on the team in hits (50), home runs (4), runs scored (53) and slugging percentage (.626) and tied for first in walks (30).

He was second in batting average (.407) and on-base percentage (.535) and tied for second in doubles (13) while driving in 26 runs.

Kingfisher went 33-8 in 2019 and advanced to the Class 4A semifinals before losing 7-4 to Blanchard. The Lions went on to win the state championship.

It was the first time KHS has won a baseball state tournament game.

KHS produced All-State selections in 2010 (Rhett Blundell) and 2017 (Matt Hopkins). Ronnie White (1971) was the only known KHS player to grab the honor prior to 2010.