Dragons off to slow start

Heading into Tuesday’s home district baseball game with Chickasha, the Dragons were 0-3 with losses to Shawnee, 8-6, Noble, 10-7 and at Chickasha Monday, 12-3.

Senior Cole Smedley got the start on the mound in the season opener at home with Shawnee. Smedley threw strikes in the first inning holding the Wolves to a single run. But in the second inning he struggled finding the zone. With a couple of mistakes as well Shawnee scored seven runs in that inning.

“We brought in Boston Knowles and he only gave up one run pitching five complete innings and striking out nine,” head coach Cole Sharp said. “I thought Boston had good demeanor on the mound.  He controlled the strike zone all day and worked ahead in the count.  He did a good job for us.

The Dragons closed with sophomore Deaken Dobbins. He tossed one inning and attacked the strike zone, Sharp reported.

“Hitting-wise we jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first and kind of coasted until Boston Knowles hit a two-run home run in the fourth. “We scored a run in the seventh but came up short,” the coach said. 

“I thought overall for the first game we competed and played hard.  We played well for 6 1/2 innings,” Sharp said.

Casey Billingsley, Bryce Blair, Dobbins, Carter Goldston, Kash Knowles and Cooper Selman all had hits in the game. Boston Knowles was 2-4 including a double to go with his dinger and had three RBIs.

Purcell jumped out to a 5-1 lead at Noble last Saturday heading into the bottom of the third but once again let the lead slip away.

The Bears pushed across three runs in their half of the third and two more in the fourth, one in the fifth and three in the sixth before Purcell could muster a pair of runs in their half of the seventh.

Sophomore Billingsley got the start on the bump for the Dragons.

“I thought Casey, for the most part, pitched well,” Sharp said. “He threw strikes for us and had them off balance for a lot of the game but Noble is a good team that can hit the ball very well.”

Freshman Kash Knowles took the hill in relief for a couple of innings.

“For his first action of varsity against a very good Noble team I thought Kash threw well,” Sharp said.  “He threw strikes but we did make a couple of mistakes in the field to give them some runs.”

Boston Knowles went yard again finishing 3-4 with a trio of RBIs. Dobbins went 2-3 at the plate with an RBI while Selman was 2-3. Billingsley and Jett Tyler both had hits in the contest.

“Boston is hitting the ball really well for us,” the coach said. “Overall, I thought we swung the bats well as a team against Noble. We made some mistakes in the field.  We battled back in the seventh, scoring a couple but were just too far behind. 

“Overall I was proud of our guys competing and battling until the end.”

Against Chickasha Purcell led 3-1 heading into the bottom of the third but the Chicks scored 11 unanswered runs to close out the game.

“I am proud of our guys coming out and jumping on teams but we need to do a better job in holding these leads throughout the game and pulling  out some victories,” Sharp said.

Chickasha held the Dragon bats in check giving up only five hits.

Billingsley smashed a home run on the second pitch of the game but after that the Dragon bats were pretty cool.

“They are a really good team that won over 30 games last year,” the coach said.

Dobbins took the loss on the mound for Purcell.

The Dragons are scheduled to play at Dibble today (Thursday) and host Davis Friday. They host Tuttle on Monday and travel to play the Tigers next Tuesday for two conference games.