BASEBALL: Verdigris falls to Elk City in 4A state quarterfinals
May 14—SHAWNEE — By the time Kash Mayfield's arm started wearing down, the deficit was too much to overcome.
Mayfield — who is committed to Oklahoma State despite being only a sophomore — kept the normally potent Verdigris bats off balance all game, allowing only one hit while striking out 14 through 5.2 innings in helping Elk City to a 7-3 victory Thursday in the Class 3A state quarterfinals on Ed Skelton Field at Shawnee High School's Memorial Park.
It was the Elks' first state tournament appearance since 2004, with their last win coming in 2001. They advanced to play Tuttle in the semifinals Friday.
"It's hard to get here, especially on the 4A level," Verdigris coach Brian Keith said. "Credit to them, they battled all year long and got in this position to get here. But it's a little bit unfortunate because I thought we were the better team, but not today. They were better than us, and that's the way baseball is — you just never know from one day to the next."
The Cardinals (30-5) struck first when Logan Hall scored on an error in the outfield in the first inning, but it was all Mayfield from there.
Mayfield struck out five-consecutive batters after that error, and it was during that stretch the Elk City offense finally found some success as well.
"I knew he was pretty good coming in, but I didn't think he'd strike us out 14 times," Keith said of Mayfield. "That's the problem — we didn't put it in play. If we put it in play and pressured them a little bit, they were going to kick it around, but we didn't do anything to put pressure on them. We couldn't get a short game; we couldn't do anything offensively. I didn't think he was that good to do that to this team. It's just unfortunate timing because we did nothing offensively."
Elk City scored five of its runs in the third, with Corey Culver starting the spurt with an RBI double to deep left field. Two pitches later, Drake Hughes scored on an error to give the Elks a permanent lead.
A bases-loaded walk then made it a 3-1 spread before another untimely error allowed Elk City to plate two more runs.
"It was stuff we haven't done all year," Keith said. "Normally we take care of the baseball and don't walk people, but if you don't do the little things, it's going to come back to get you against anybody. Our goal is to not just get to the state tournament but to win it, but we just didn't play well today at all. We didn't deserve to win. It's unfortunate, but that's the way baseball is. It's about the little things, and you gotta execute the little things. We just did not do the little things right.
"Any time you do that, you open the door to let any ole bloop to fall down, and they had a bloop fall down and scored two more," he added. "You just can't do that. This stuff is routine stuff, and we didn't execute. Our catching was not good."
It was at that point Odin McConnell replaced Cody Bressie on the mound, pitching the remaining five innings. Bressie tossed 58 pitches through 2.2 innings, allowing two hits and five walks while striking out two.
McConnell kept the Elks fairly limited the remainder of the game, but a 2-RBI single along the right-field line from Kye Keyes in the fifth served as a dagger to the Cardinals' hopes of a comeback.
"Bressie has been good all year long, and he has battled an elbow injury all year long," Keith said. "That kid gutted it out and did the best he could, but he was on his last leg today. It's unfortunate, but he competed his butt off today, and that's all you can ask of him."
The final two Verdigris runs came on a pair of bases-loaded walks in the sixth inning before Mayfield was finally relieved.
"We lost five starters, but we'll have four starters back," Keith said, referring to returners Reese Roller, Brodie Russell, Luke Zaferes and Jax Ryan. "I've got some young kids who have some work to do to get better. We've got a lot of work to do for next year."