Archive - Sports Article
May 10th, 2013
WISTER — Earlier this year, Wister baseball player Tyler Gibson signed with Seminole State College. A second Wildcat senior, Colby Turnipseed, signed to play college baseball at Carl Albert State College in a signing ceremony Tuesday morning at the Wister Gym.
“I just like to play college baseball,” Turnipseed said “It’s close to home. I really just want to go in there and do whatever they tell me to do — and play wherever. I’m looking forward to the opportunity. I’m very excited.”
The LeFlore County Bass Club had their sixth tournament of the 2013 circuit on Sunday at Wards Landing on Wister Lake. There were 35 boats with 62 anglers who caught 101 fish that had a total weight of 208.96 pounds. The average weight per fish was 2.07 pounds. Nine limits were caught.
Tom Neff and Paul Tankersly took first place with a stringer weighing 17 pounds even, which included Neff’s big bass weighing 5.99 pounds. The duo pocketed $770 for the win, while Neff got an additional $310 for the big bass winner.
May 9th
EDMOND — Jason Hickman went 2-for-2 with a double, a run batted in and two runs scored to lead the Spiro Bulldogs to a 5-2 victory over the Salina Wildcats in the Class 3A State Tournament quarterfinals Thursday afternoon at Deer Creek High School.
Spiro (27-6) advances to play Verdigris (30-2), a 3-0 winner over Oklahoma Christian earlier Thursday, at 11 a.m. Friday in the state semifinals.
The game will be a rematch of last year's state quarterfinals, which was won by the Cardinals, ranked No. 1 in OKRankings.com, over the ’Dogs 1-0 at Edmond Memorial High School.
For Poteau Lady Pirates track seniors Colleen Peterson and Latifah Harris, they were hoping that they would return to state in their final season to do so. And they did.
Peterson and Harris, two of the four legs of both the 800-meter and 1,600-meter relays, will get to run at the Class 5A State Meet, which will be Friday and Saturday at Yukon High School’s Miller Stadium.
The duo will be joined by Marissa Smith and Brianna Steele on the 800-meter relay, while Brittany Fox and Kandace Standridge will run with them in the 1,600-meter relay.
• • •
Poteau/Class 5A State Track Meet Qualifiers
OKLAHOMA CITY — After surviving Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on Sunday afternoon at home against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Oklahoma City Thunder needed to play better — and make a statement that it is still a title contender.
Without Russell Westbrook, the Thunder has struggled to find a groove, and has been inconsistent to say the least. That trend continued as the Thunder fell 99-93 to Memphis on Tuesday night in Game 2 at Chesapeake Energy Arena, and left the series tied 1-1 heading to Memphis for Games 3 and 4.
Turkey season has come to a close, and I have a few more pictures and stories to put this season to rest.
First, Parker Cooper of Cameron killed his first gobbler this year. It was a 17-pound bird with 9½-inch beard and ¾-inch spurs. Parker was hunting with Jake French on this hunt.
Butch Parks, Brad Wells and Carl Milligan took birds off our lease near Clayton last week. Butch’s gobbler weighed 21 pounds and had a 9½-inch paintbrush beard.
Even though the game was tight on the scoreboard as the Bethany Bronchos from leveled the score at 1 just five minutes into the second half, the Poteau Pirates wore down the Bronchos with wholesale line changes. Finally, the Poteau offensive unit staged an offensive explosion as the Pirates simply blew by the Bronchos with three goals within a five-minute span as Poteau won the game by the score of 4-1 in the Class 4A state semifinals Tuesday night before a festive full house of Poteau fans at Costner Stadium.
The Carl Albert State College Vikings baseball team is opening postseason play tonight when they meet the Western Oklahoma State College at 7 p.m. in the first round of the Region II Tournament at Bartlesville’s Doenges Ballpark.
This postseason parade is especially important to Poteau’s Connor Gilstrap, a sophomore outfielder.
SPIRO — It’s quite an accomplishment when a high school athlete makes the state tournament, even better when it happens more than once. That’s the case for Spiro senior pitcher Kelby Fowler.
“It was great,” said Fowler about Saturday afternoon’s 5-4 win over Stigler to win the Class 3A Regional Tournament and make state. “Making it the first time [last year] was kind of overwhelming. This year, it’s kind of the same thing. It’s a good feeling to get to go back to back to state. I’m beyond excited. I’m loving it.”
May 8th
For the second straight spring, we will have at least one LeFlore County baseball team make the state tournament.
The Spiro Bulldogs won the Class 3A Regional Tournament on Saturday to make state for the second straight season.
The complete schedule of the state tournament is listed at the end of this column.
