Sports

Starting out with back-to-back wins, Union City High School’s slow-pitch softball team is battling a two-game losing steak after setbacks to Hinton and Binger-Oney.

The Tigers dropped a 25-17 shootout to the Comets before losing 11-3 to Binger-Oney. Union City (2-2) defeated Cement (14-2) and Wayne (13-1) to kick off the spring season.

Through four games the Tigers have scored 47 runs off a .496 batting average after going 56-of-113 at the plate. The team has six doubles and one home run from Emily Griggs.

Union City High School’s baseball team kicked off the spring season with back-to-back shutout wins over Oklahoma Christian Academy and Geary.

The Tigers downed OCA by an 11-0 margin before blanking the Bisons by a 19-0 score.

Union City went 19-of-36 (.528) from the plate over the spread, with eight of those hits being doubles. Dalton Stout and Braydon Armstrong had two each.

For just the sixth time in history, both El Reno High School basketball teams earned their way to the Elite Eight for the 2023 Class 5A Oklahoma State High School Basketball Championships.

“This is just the thing you want. The more people we have going to state, the more people we are going to have in the stands. I’ve always been a firm believer that if one or two programs have success like this it can spread out to other sports,” said El Reno girls coach Jennifer Douglas.

The last time both teams made state was in 2019. Other times were in 2017, 1999, 1996 and 1994.

Being one of a handful of seniors on the El Reno High School boys basketball roster, Diante Palmer figured at some point this season he would be expected to take on some sort of a leadership role.

“I expected to be a leader at some point. I wanted to start right away but that didn’t happen because I was new to the program and I was coming over from football. But I knew a lot of the people on the team and that made it easier to be a verbal leader,” said Palmer.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Is it a jinx?

Some may think that after Calumet had its 26-game win streak snapped via a 68-52 loss to top-ranked Fort Cobb-Broxton in the finals of the 2023 Class B Boys Oklahoma State High School Basketball Championships.

It was the second time in five seasons for the Chieftains to take a 25-plus game win streak into the state championship game, only to have the elusive gold ball slip from their grasp.

Calumet lost a four-point game to Kinta in the 2019 championship which ended a 29-game win streak.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Okarche played a solid game in last week’s semifinals of the Class A Girls Oklahoma State High School Basketball Championships.

The seventh-ranked Warriors scored in double digits in all four periods and shot 45 percent from the field. Good enough numbers to win the majority of games during the season.

Just not when you play top-ranked Seiling.

The eventual state champion shot 46 percent from the field and made 13-of-26 attempts from the 3-point arc en route to a 69-48 win over the Warriors, who closed the year with a 24-6 record.

El Reno High School qualified four varsity lifters for the 2023 Oklahoma Powerlifting Coaches Association’s State Championships during the Northwest Regional meet in Woodward.

Earning state passes were Dion Kaulaity (275), Latin Everheart (123), JaRon Irving (157) and Malachi Nicholson (181). The state meet will be held inside Jenks Simmons Field House Thursday through Saturday.

El Reno placed third at regional among Class 5A entries in the Large School Division with 81 points.

Guthrie led the trio with 149 points and Southeast was second with 97 points.

El Reno High School’s baseball team kicked off the 2023 spring season last week by splitting non-district games with Kingfisher and Lawton MacArthur.

The Indians defeated the Yellowjackets on the road by an 11-3 margin, before dropping their home opener at the Hub Reed Complex to the Highlanders by a 5-1 margin.

El Reno went 13-of-58 (.224) from the plate after logging just two hits against the Highlanders. The Indians drew 10 walks for the two games but struck out a combined 19 times.

EDMOND – The shot he wasn't supposed to take ended up the clutch basket which sent El Reno High School's boys basketball team back to the Class 5A state tournament.

Senior Diante Palmer banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer as El Reno defeated cross-county rival Piedmont 47-46 to win the Class 5A West Area 2 Consolation Championships.

“We had a play to run to get the ball to Carter (Roman Nose) so he could shoot the 3-pointer. I ended up with the ball in my hands and I went ahead and took the shot,” said Palmer.

MUSTANG – Two multi-minute scoring droughts and a double-digit turnover mark, all in the second half, turned what looked to be a major upset in the Class 5A playoffs into the first postseason loss for El Reno High School's boys basketball team.

Facing No.2 Del City in the 5A West Area 2 Championships, El Reno squandered a 17-point halftime lead en route to a 53-45 loss to advance the Eagles to next week's state tourney.