Maybe the Ardmore Cardinals should play tournaments every week.
Backed by two solid pitching performances from Price Buckaloo and Brison Campbell, the Cardinals won two of their remaining three games in the Durant Fourth of July Tournament. Ardmore rebounded from a 9-3 loss to Durant Thursday to beat the Dallas Titans (White) 4-3 Friday.
The Cardinals (10-19) split games Saturday, losing to the Dallas Titans (Red) 12-5 and run-ruling Durant High School 9-0 in five innings.
“When we’re playing the games in the heat of the day, and we’re playing back-to-back, they really play well,” Cardinals’ coach Jake Melton said Saturday.
Buckaloo set the tone for the weekend run with a stellar outing on Friday, striking out nine batters in 6 2-3 innings. Cody Sewell picked up his first save of the summer by forcing a Dallas hitter to ground out to second to end the game.
The Cardinals plated three runs in the third and one more on a Billy Reinhart single in the bottom of the fifth, which proved to be the winning run.
“Price has kept us in every ball game he’s pitched,” Melton said. “We were able to avoid the big inning in that game.”
Ardmore couldn’t avoid the big inning against Dallas in game 2. Tied 5-5 entering the top of the seventh inning, Dallas ripped off seven runs to pull away. Two straight bloop singles fell in for the Titans followed by two home runs and a triple to complete the surge.
“We had our chance, but we stranded too many guys early in that game,” Melton said. “That big inning again today kept us out of the championship round.”
With the loss, the Cardinals had no shot at advancing to today’s final, but the team made amends through a nine-run, nine-hit performance in its closing game.
In the first inning, Trevor Raper had an RBI double to start the scoring, and Wes Davis and Reinhart followed up with RBI singles for a 3-0 Ardmore advantage.
The Cardinals scored their run-rule margin in the bottom of the third. Colton McKenzie led off the inning with a single, Raper reached on a fielder’s choice, then Davis hit a two-run double. Reinhart singled then stole second, Jonathan Gannon walked and Kevin Parsons and Jacob Brecht hit back-to-back RBI singles to complete a six-run inning.
The run production was backed by the arm of Campbell, who tossed a five-inning two-hitter with four strikeouts and two walks.
