Trevor Bianchini (right) of Elgin dives into second base during a Jim Walton semifinal on Sunday. Bianchini and the Southwest Shockers Red team came back from three runs down in the sixth inning to beat the OKC Expos in the semifinals. They then went on to beat a familiar foe in Shockers Black, 7-3, to win the championship.
With two undefeated Southwest Shockers teams meeting in the Jim Walton Tournament championship game on Sunday, something had to give.
For Shockers Red, the pitching edge did the trick.
Despite some early struggles, Miguel Obeso kept the Shockers Black batters off balance, striking out nine to lead Shockers Red to a 7-3 victory at Cameron University’s McCord Field.
“I came out and kind of struggled finding the zone, but I knew once I could find the zone, I had guys who could make plays behind me, and that’s all that mattered,” said Obeso, a Dover High graduate. “I just had to come out and throw strikes, and my teammates took care of the rest.”
And throw strikes he did.
Five of Obeso’s nine strikeouts came in the final four innings after Shockers Black garnered a 2-0 lead. He kept Black hitless in two of those innings, allowing Shockers Red to forge a comeback.
In all, Obeso gave up seven hits, two of which came in the seventh when he was exhausted from a long day on the mound, but that didn’t bother him too much.
“Some of the hits were good, but some were dinkers and I couldn’t catch a break,” Obeso said. “Baseball is a great game, and you never know what’s going to happen, so I knew as long as I threw strikes, I’d put myself in a good position to be successful.”
Shockers Red coach Kyle Fultz said he was impressed with Obeso’s continued arm strength despite him pitching nearly a full game.
“He threw the ball really well and was up to 89-90 mph a couple of times,” Fultz said. “It was big for him to be able to throw seven innings.”
Obeso is now 2-0 as a starter this season, with his first win coming against the OKC Ambassadors in a 7-2 victory at Southern Nazarene University (SNU) in Bethany on May 29.
Obeso is signed to play baseball at SNU next season.
Shockers Black used three pitchers, but none seemed capable of cooling the Shockers Red bats. Shockers Red connected for nine hits, but no player had more than Brooks Red of Arapaho.
Red finished 3-for-4 from the plate, tallying two singles and a double to go along with an RBI and two runs scored.
Despite his feats, he was quick to defer the attention away from himself, putting the spotlight on his teammates’ plate performances this summer.
“I got good pitches to hit and had runners on base,” Red said. “I just tried to do my best to get my team the win.
“We’ve been swinging it well as a team, and I’ve been swinging it well, just like everyone else. We just try to have good team at-bats and score runs.”
Kaden Hans of Blair also cranked out multiple hits, including a double in the fifth inning to score Red, increasing Shockers Red’s advantage to 5-2.
Red plans to continue his baseball career at the collegiate level at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) in Weatherford.
Although all the Shocker players and coaches were anticipating a matchup between the Red and Black teams, it nearly didn’t happen.
Shockers Red trailed the OKC Expos by three runs in the semifinals before rallying late to steal a 6-4 win, and Shockers Black experienced a similar situation, coming back from two runs down in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game and eventually defeat the Burkburnett Blacksox 18U, 6-5, in 10 innings.
Fultz was admittedly worried the teams would miss out on the dream matchup.
“I was worried that we both weren’t going to make it because we had to score five runs in the bottom of the sixth to win the semifinal game,” Fultz said. “But (Black) has a really scrappy bunch, so I had all the confidence in the world in them.”
Unfortunately for Shockers Black, playing a championship game a mere 30 minutes after that grueling 10-inning showdown with the Blacksox was too draining.
Shockers Black coach Cesar Figuereo said that though he was disappointed in the outcome, he understood the fatigue his players faced. It was the team’s first loss of the young season.
“They didn’t have the same energy that I expected throughout the whole game, so that was a factor in us losing the game,” Figuereo said. “I had to use some of the guys I wasn’t expecting to pitch, and I didn’t have my main pitcher on the mound today. This sport is about failure, sometimes. You have to face some adversity and learn from that adversity to get better for the next game.
“But they have good attitudes. They took it positively, and I think we’re going to keep doing good during the season.”
Perhaps no one was more ecstatic about the finals matchup than Shockers president Perry Warren.
As players from both teams began mingling near home plate after the game, Warren was right there in the mix congratulating each of them. To Warren, the Jim Walton Tournament was only the beginning of what could become one of the Shockers’ most successful seasons yet.
“We’re very excited about the summer,” Warren said. “We worked hard to encourage the kids to be the best they could be, and we’ve got a real nice group — three teams of very solid players. There’s a lot of potential.”
Despite his excitement, Warren said the Shockers organization isn’t about only baseball. It is about providing a purpose and the players allowing that purpose to drive them to even greater heights as they navigate through life.
“The guys are buying in to intentionality,” Warren said. “Each time I text the boys before a game, I tell them to play with intentionality. To get quality pitches at the plate and to encourage their teammates to do the same. If we’ll do those things, we’ll win lots of games.”