After falling behind early to rival Lawton High, Eisenhower roared back on Senior Day, with help in large part from their three senior leaders.
Justin Strickland went 3 for 3 with two doubles, Will Trachte had 3 RBIs and Caiden Smalls reached base twice as the Eagles scored 13 unanswered runs to top the Wolverines in a four-inning, mercy-rule win on Thursday, 13-3.
Eisenhower now faces local rival MacArthur in its regular season finale, tonight at 5 pm Ike sits one game ahead of Mac in their district standings.
Things started bumpy for the Eagles though, as two Lawton High singles and a walk to start the game quickly loaded the bases. Clayton Beckman grounded into a fielder’s choice in which a would-be double play only got the runner at 2nd base out, and also scored Adrian Garrison for the game’s first run. Two batters later, Antonio Garrison drove a ball into right field, that a diving Jaydin Moore couldn’t quite come up with, bringing Alyssa Moore and Luis Gonzalez home to score. A long pop fly to center field ended the rally.
Ike’s first two batters go aboard, but back-to-back at-bats resulted in fly-outs to centerfielder Adrian Garrison, whose arm strength kept runners from advancing on each occasion. With two outs, a ground ball to shortstop with a force available at second base appeared to end the inning. Instead, it might have changed the trajectory of the game, as it was fumbled, allowing all runners to be safe and for the inning to continue. The next batter, AJ El Kouri, drove a double off the left-field wall, scoring both runners to make it 3-2 LHS at the end of the first.
After the Wolverines couldn’t muster any runs in the top half of the 2nd, Ike got to work. Rashaud Hurt was hit by a pitch (the first of three pitches that would hit Hurt) before Strickland drove a ball toward the left-field wall along the foul line. The ball fell in mud next to the wall, allowing Strickland to coast into second with a double. Will Trachten doubled, scoring both runners. Trachten moved to 3rd on a ground out, and later scored when Andre Amentine hit a pop fly in the infield that fell between fields. El Kouri stroked his second double of the game to plate Amentine and El Kouri scored when Moore drove him home, capping a five-run inning.
The Eagles topped that in the 3rd, as Ike batted around. Five batters were hit and four hits were recorded. The damage was complete by sophomore Tenari Atoe, who drove home two runs with a single, making it 13-3.
Adrian Garrison and Alyssa Moore each had two hits for the Wolverines. Charlie Trachte got the win on the mound for the Eagles while Kaleb Plata suffered the loss for LHS.
