OKLAHOMA CITY — Their patience at the plate must've come from waiting out a 90-minute rain delay.
After rain forced the Eisenhower and Lawton High baseball teams to sit and wait before taking the field, Ike decided to try and use a similar approach offensively Friday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
In the end, rain would return at an odd time to grant Eisenhower a 9-8 win over their city rivals in five innings. Despite tying the game 9-9 in the top of the sixth, a third and final rain delay erased the Wolverines' last run since, by rule, the game must conclude at the beginning of the previous full inning.
Before rain canceled the remainder of the game -- which could've gone either way after a roller-coaster five innings -- Ike appeared to be running away with the game just as the first rain bands raced away from downtown.
Ike drew five straight walks in the first inning which scored two early runs. With the bases still loaded, junior Alex Young delivered 3 RBIs by drubbing a left-field double to the wall, giving Ike an early 5-0 lead.
"At first I thought it went over the fence, but it didn't quite make it," Young said. "That really got us going."
Ike added two more runs in the bottom of the second inning to build its lead to 7-3.
The Wolverines woke up quickly though responding to Ike's five runs out of the gate with eight of their own in the second and third innings to give LHS an 8-7 lead, which it held until the bottom of the fifth inning.
Zach Hanna delivered an infield RBI single to get LHS on the board before coming around to score with a second Wolverine on an Ike error, with a two-out throw being wide of first base.
LHS capitalized on Ike miscues again in the third when another fielding error capped a five-run inning. But it was Michael Mireles who got things cooking for the Wolverines by getting a fly ball to drop in shallow left-center, plating two runs.
"Anytime you can come back from a 5-0 spot, you did something good," LHS coach Kyle Fultz said. "The kids battled and never gave up. It just didn't go our way at the end."
Eisenhower committed five errors and gave LHS ample chances to snag the game from the Eagles.
"We come out with a five run lead and then we just gave it right back to them. We were very inconsistent," Ike coach Jay Vermillion said. "We're making too many mistakes and it's costing us right now."
The Eagles responded in the fifth when Nate Paquin singled to center to drive in a run and tie the game at eight apiece. With runners on second and third with two outs, LHS committed its own costly mistake when a wild pitch scored Alex Young to give Ike a 9-8 lead in what turned out to be the game-winning run.
Glistening under the lights, rain began to fall once again in the top of the sixth as another Ike fielding error scored the tying run for Lawton High only moments before officials called off the game.
"It's very discouraging," Vermillion said. "But we were very aware of the weather while watching the radar closely."
Fultz echoed the disappointment of the untimely weather.
"We at least need to play a full seven (innings) and give ourselves a chance. I know the weather just can't help it so there's nothing we can do about it," Fultz said. "That's just Mother Nature for you."
Both Ike and LHS may have a chance to even the score later this week, when they could potentially meet in the second round of the 42nd Annual Bo Bowman Invitational Baseball Tournament.
