ECP Tourney for Bulldogs

Head coach Shane Collins and his Wayne Bulldogs picked up an extra inning win, 6-5, over Thackerville on Monday.

“We didn’t have a good day on the base paths. We were caught stealing,” Collins said.

The Bulldogs were up 5-3 in the final inning but a couple of walks allowed Thackerville to tie up the game at 5-5 and send it to extra innings.

Wayne had a base runner on thanks to Kaleb Madden getting hit by a pitch. He stole second, then stole third. Rhett Kennedy, currently the  hot bat for Wayne, hit a single to score Madden and win the game.

“Rhett has been hitting the ball well for us. His base hit was clutch.”

The Bulldogs had 10 hits in the win, including four for Kennedy. He doubled in the first, tripled in the third, doubled in the fourth and singled in the sixth.

Ty Kemp was on the mound. He struck out nine batters.

Last week, the Wayne Bulldogs were in the Dibble tournament starting last Thursday. They got a 9-7 win over Class A Binger-Oney. Then they fell to  Class A No. 4 Sterling, 11-0. And they were knocked out of the tournament by a 2-1 loss to Class B No. 20 Lookeba-Sickles.

Last Tuesday the Bulldogs got a commanding, 11-0 win over Ringling.

Dibble Tournament

The Bulldogs struck first in their win over Binger-Oney. They got four runs across the plate in the top of the first inning.

The Bobcats responded with one run in the bottom of the first.

Wayne added three more runs in the second.

The Bobcats were held scoreless until they made things interesting with five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Wayne added two more insurance runs in the top of the fifth to hold off Binger-Oney for the win.

Madden and Kemp led the team with three hits a piece. Kennedy and Lane Jones each had two hits. Wayne finished the game with 12 hits and six RBIs.

Braden McClendon picked up the win from the mound. He went three and a third innings, striking out six.

Jaxon Dill came on in relief. He faced seven batters and struck out one.

In their second game of the tournament, Wayne ran into a tough Sterling team. The Tigers outhit Wayne 12-5 and scored early and often in the 11-0 win.

Madden and Kennedy each had two hits and Dill added one.

Dill was on the mound for four innings of work. He allowed eight runs on nine hits and struck out one batter. Wyatt Webster came on in relief for the final inning. He allowed three runs on three hits and struck out one batter.

“Early mistakes did us in. Those mistakes snowballed and you can’t have that against a team like Sterling,” Collins said.

The final game of the Dibble tournament was a 2-1 loss to Lookeba-Sickles. The Panthers outhit Wayne 8-3.

The top of Wayne’s lineup accounted for their three hits. One each for Madden, Kennedy and Dill.

Despite the offense having trouble getting anything going, Madden shined on the mound. He struck out seven and walked just one.

“Kaleb was hitting the zone all day. That was probably his best game of his career.”

Madden threw about 74% strikes in his seven inning outing.

“We had our chances to win -- bases loaded and no outs in the final inning -- but we could not get things going.”

Ringling

Last Tuesday, Wayne had 10 hits and seven RBIs on their way to an 11-0 win over Ringling.

Madden, Dill and Jones had two hits each. Kennedy scored four of Wayne’s 11 to lead the team.

Kennedy, Webster, Aiden Beck and Ben Fisher each had a hit.

McClendon picked up the win for Wayne. He struck out ten batters and gave up just two hits and walked three.

The Bulldogs (13-5) were scheduled to host Maysville on Tuesday and be in Elmore City for their Invitational starting Thursday.

Pool play games are against Healdton at noon and Rush Springs at 2 p.m.