The Little River Conference (LRC) Baseball Tournament held their championship games Friday at Varnum High School.

Competing for the Consolation Championship was the Strother Yellowjackets and the Earlsboro Wildcats. The Wildcats went to bat first and scored two runs to start the game. The Yellowjackets fired back and took the lead with three runs scored at the bottom of the inning.

The game became a battle as the Wildcats regained the lead with four runs scored. The Jackets didn’t let it bother them as they went back on top with five runs scored.

Strother had a 8-6 lead heading into the third inning, The Wildcats had a huge inning in the third by scoring five runs to take the lead from Strother. The Jackets responded with four runs scored at the bottom of the inning to go up by one.

Neither team scored in the fourth.

Earlsboro took a twopoint lead in the fifth with three runs scored. Strother struggled on offense in the inning and went three and out.

The Wildcats added to their lead at the top of the sixth with four more runs. Earlsboro was now ahead by six points. The Yellowjackets never gave up and fired back with six runs scored at the bottom of the inning to tie things up.

In the seventh and final inning, the Wildcats lost their momentum and went three and out. The Jackets took advantage and scored the winning run at the bottom of the inning.

The Strother Yellowjackets won the Consolation Championship 19-18.

Next was the Sasakwa Vikings and the Varnum Whippets battling for the Third Place Championship.

The visiting Vikings took to the plate first and jumped on the scoreboard with Darius Henderson hitting a homerun and knocking in runner Micah Wheeler and Titus Collins scoring on an error.

The Whippets had zero runs in the inning.

Sasakwa could not add to their lead in the second and went scoreless. The Whippets lit up the score board when Jon Madkins and Brenden Poull scored on an error.

The Vikings extended their lead at the top of the third with a grand slam homerun by Bryor Bible. Bible knocked in runners Darius Henderson, Titus Collins and Ayden Livesay.

The Whippets closed the gap some when Aiden Cooper scored on a ground ball and Ryan Poull scored on a pop fly.

The score now was Sasakwa 7 and the Whippets 4. The Vikings continued with their momentum and scored four more runs in the inning. Wheeler and Henderson scored on a line drive, Livesay and Collins scored on a ground ball.

Varnum struggled again at bat and went three and out. The Vikings did not score at the top of fifth and Whippets went back to work on offense with Ryan Poull scoring on a ground ball, Jayce Sheffield and Brenden Poull scored on a line drive.

Varnum had pulled within four points at the bottom of the fifth, but the Vikings added one more run by Bible who hit a home run to start the sixth inning.

Varnum kept digging and closed the gap again with Ryan Poull hitting a home run and knocking in runner Cooper.

There was a 3-point difference between the teams heading into the seventh and final inning with the Vikings leading.

Sasakwa could not add to their lead in the inning and went three and out. The Whippets took advantage and rallied back with Chance Winsett and Devyn Fullbright scoring on a ground ball to close the gap by one, but Varnum fell short of their goal.

The Sasakwa Vikings won the Third Place Championship with a final score of 12-11.

Pitching for Varnum was Jon Madkins who pitched four innings, allowing one run, two walks and striking out six.

Ryan Poull pitched two innings allowing five runs, two walks and striking out five.

Pitching for Sasakwa was Josh Jones who pitched five innings, allowing seven runs, one walk and striking out five.

Ayden Livesay pitched two innings, allowing four runs, three walks and striking out two.

The final game of the day was for the LRC Tournament Championship between Moss and New Lima.

The New Lima Falcons went to bat first but had no luck and went three and out. The Moss Pirates jumped out to an early lead with five runs scored at the bottom of the inning.

The Falcons struggled on offense in the first two innings and went scoreless again in the second frame. The Pirates added two more runs to their lead to make it 7-0.

The Falcons kept battling and lit up the score board in the third with Alex Leaver and Hesson Sipes scoring on a ground ball and Hunt Martin scored on a line drive.

The defense of New Lima stepped up and kept the Pirates scoreless through the third and fourth inning.

At the top of the fifth, the Falcons closed the gap by one with Leaver scoring on a fly ball. The Pirates scored a single run at the bottom of the inning.

The Falcons fired back in the sixth with Sipes scoring on a fly ball and Leaver also scoring on a fly ball to close the gap by two runs.

The Pirates extended their lead with four more runs added at the bottom of the sixth.

In the final inning, the Falcons had one more try to rally back but could not make it happen. New Lima Falcon won the Runner Up Championship with q final score of 12-6.

Pitching for New Lima was Logan Heard who pitched five innings, allowing 11 runs, one walk and nine strikeouts.

Hunt Martin pitched one inning, allowing one run, zero walks and striking out one.

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