WILBURTON — The ability to overcome adversity is the mark of a good team, and MacArthur baseball proved it had the fortitude to do just that on Friday night.
The Highlanders (23-5) defeated McAlester, 6-4, in their final game of the East/West Showdown at Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton, ending their surprising three-game losing streak.
Mac finished 1-3 against teams from the east, falling to Durant, Claremore and Bishop Kelley by a combined tally of 31-10 before halting the slide against the Buffaloes.
The Highlanders found themselves in another hole after the first inning, trailing McAlester, 4-2, but coach Rodney DeLong’s squad refused to get discouraged. Buffaloes pitcher Harley Martin limited Mac the next two innings, but come the fourth, the comeback was in motion.
The Highlanders added two runs in the fourth to tie the game at four, and after a scoreless fifth, they took the lead for good in the sixth with two more runs to bring the score to 6-4.
Zac DeLong and Racer Felter led Mac at the plate, recording four of the team’s five hits. Zac De-Long also made a diving catch on a would-be double along the third-base line that would’ve given the Buffaloes a 6-2 advantage.
Jake Smith had the only other hit for the Highlanders, as well as an RBI.
“We saw a lot of breaking balls and not very many fastballs,” Coach DeLong told The Constitution. “They all pitched around our top hitters and very seldom ever challenged us with fastballs.”
Malik Wilson struggled on the mound early, allowing all of McAlester’s runs in the first. The sophomore kept the Buffaloes off balance the remainder of the contest, though, finishing with a stat line of seven strikeouts to only three hits on 114 pitches through six innings.
“Malik was outstanding on the mound,” coach De-Long said. “We had just watched (McAlester) throttle Piedmont, and I was thinking, ‘Here we go again, another dog fight’. We made an error in the first inning and walked a few hitters to allow them to score four and go up 4-2, but Malik just locked in and shut them down for fivestraight innings.”
Zac DeLong relieved Wilson in the seventh with a 25-pitch max, but it wasn’t quite enough to finish McAlester.
Enter Kolby Henry.
Of the 70 strikes thrown by the Mac pitching trio, the freshman’s were perhaps the most crucial.
Facing bases loaded with two outs of insurance and a 2-0 count on Alton Jones, Henry threw three-consecutive strikes, preventing the Highlanders’ second walkoff loss in three days to seal the much-needed win.
“It was a great adjustment for us that will aid us down the stretch and should prepare us better for the state tournament,” coach DeLong. “I don’t like losing, but there’s always a lot more gained than any run-rule victory. We just have to learn from the losses and keep getting better.”
Up next
Mac returns to district action at 5 p.m. on Monday at home with the first game of a home-and-home series against Duncan. The Demons (23-5) finished 0-3 in the East/West Showdown, losing to Bishop Kelley, Collinsville and Claremore. Duncan’s final game of the tourney against Durant on Saturday was canceled.