Warriors taking on the challenge

If Okarche is going to reach the pinnacle in baseball, it’s going to have to beat some elite arms at the end of the season.

Ryan Beaman wants his team to see as many of those kinds of pitchers as possible in the present in order to prepare for the future.

The result? If the first week of the season is any indication… it’s quite positive.

The Warriors picked up three quality wins last week against teams that - at the very least - expect to be in the state tournament in October.

Okarche opened the season with a 7-3 win against Canute last Tuesday.

The Warriors followed that up by downing Calumet 2-0 Friday and then Wright City 4-2 on Saturday.

(Ed. note: Rankings have not yet been released for this fall.)

All three wins were at home.

“The whole week I thought was really solid,” said Okarche coach Ryan Beaman, who guided the Warriors to the Class A semifinals both in the fall 2023 season and then again in the spring of 2024.

“Going into those games, I thought it was going to be ‘a week,’” Beaman admits. “In all reality, it was. Those were good games, real dogfi ghts.

“They were good tests and we saw a lot of good arms.”

And he marched some out to the mound as well.

Canute had the displeasure of facing Luke Hill for five innings and then Brett Carnott and Easton Roby for an inning each.

The Trojans had just five hits and one earned run over the seven innings.

Hill gave up three of those hits and one unearned run. He struck out six batters without walking any through his five innings of work.

Roby got the nod against Calumet and he responded with six innings of work.

The Chieftains managed just three hits as Roby struck out six batters.

Hill finished off the visitors in the seventh with one more strikeout.

On Saturday, it was Carnott’s turn. He responded with a complete game in the blistering heat.

Carnott gave up five hits, one earned run and struck out six Lumberjax.

“All three were really good,” Beaman said. “And Brett going with the complete game against Wright City in that heat was really impressive.”

The Warriors wasted no time against Canute as they scored five of their runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Carnott drove in two runs with a double, Jett Mueggenborg followed with an RBI single, Ryder Lykins came through with an RBI double and Sam Kroener drove in a run with his single.

The Warriors added two more in the fourth as Carnott’s double brought home Hill and then Lykins drew a bases-loaded walk.

Hill finished 3 for 5 while Carnott and Lykins both went 2 for 3 and combined for 5 RBIs.

Against Calumet, Okarche got one run in each of the first two innings.

After Okarche’s Colin Hendrickson, Hill and Roby led off with back-to-back-toback singles, Carnott drew a walk.

The Chieftains escaped further damage in the frame, but a two-out error on a fly ball by Roby in the second inning allowed another run to cross home.

That was all the support Roby needed.

“He probably wanted to finish the game, but we did that for a reason,” Beaman said.

After falling behind Wright City 1-0, the Warriors tied that game up due to another error.

Mueggenborg reached on a fielder’s choice and then scored on a catcher’s error with two outs to tie the game in the second inning.

An RBI groundout by Roby in the third made it 2-1, but Wright City came back to tie the game in the fifth.

Lykins led off the top of the seventh with a single and moved to second on Kroener’s sacrifice bunt.

Hendrickson brought home the go-ahead run with a single.

Roby added insurance with an RBI single to score Hendrickson.

The Warriors had six hits in the game, two by Lykins. Roby drove in two runs.

Despite facing the quality pitching through three games, Okarche has four batters hitting .333 or better.

That group is led by Lykins, who is 4 for 7 and also has walked twice and been hit by a pitch.

Hill is batting .667 and leads the team with six hits.

“The kids are playing well. I know it’s early, but it’s nice to come out and show out early,” Beaman said.

The Warriors’ schedule doesn’t let up this week.

They traveled to Ripley on Monday before hosting perennial power Dale on Tuesday. The Pirates are undefeated early and just won the Dale Fall Classic, which included wins over Fort Cobb-Broxton, Oktaha and Rattan.

Then on Thursday, Okarche begins play in the Oktaha Fall Classic.

That features the host, Wister, Rattan and Okarche’s first-round foe, Red Oak, among others.

Beaman said the brutal schedule is quite intentional.

“Theyknowwhatthey’re going to see as far as pitching goes when they get to the end (of the season in the playoffs),” Beaman said. “Seeing that over and over again, to me, is about the best way is to get ready for that.

“We’ll be battle tested and by the time we get there, we should have seen it.”

His players, he said, won’t back down either.

“It’s a good group,” Beaman siad. “They can play and they love those challenges.”