Road To Gold: Your Guide To The Class B Baseball State Tournament

It is that time of season and we have finally reached the State Tournament and congratulations to all the teams that have made it back to the state tournament. Follow along as I preview the State Tournament matchups and hear from the coaches as they give their thoughts. The quarterfinals and semifinals are both at Moore High School and the state championship will be at Shawnee High School

#1 Ft. Cobb-Broxton vs #9 Granite

Thursday at 9:00am

Last Appearance: Ft. Cobb-Broxton (Fourth consecutive since 2021) Navajo (First since 2021()

Ft. Cobb-Broxton’s road to state

Ft. Cobb-Broxton’s playoffs began with wins over Lookeba-Sickles 15-0 and 15-2 in districts, Defeated Varnum 11-1 and Mill Creek 16-0 and 8-0 to advance to the state tournament.

This season we started a little slower than we would have liked. I feel like our schedule is one of the toughest you’ll find for a small school. Also Eli Willits was out for the first half and so we had some guys playing out of their normal positions at times. I also felt like it took us a bit to get our bats going this spring. With all that combined we lost a few more games than we previously have early on, but I think it helped us to have to overcome some adversity and become tougher mentally. Due to our recent successes, our boys expect to make it to the State Tournament. With this being our 18th consecutive trip to the State Tournament combined fall and spring. making it to tournament isn’t the goal anymore, they seem to get more focused the closer it gets to Thursday. The boys are plenty motivated and focused in to win their 4th straight state title said Ft. Cobb-Broxton coach Dale Bellamy.

Granite’s road to state

Granite’s playoffs began with wins over Duke 16-3 and 13-3 in districts, Defeated Frontier 6-2 and Caney 10-7 and 8-7 to advance to the state tournament.

The energy after we won was incomparable to anything I’ve ever been apart of.

Especially after the comeback the boys made in the 1st game against Caney being down seven in the fifth and then putting the cherry on top by walking it off in extra innings in the second game to take us to state. The boys came into the season with a new mindset of doing what it takes to be successful as a Team. The sacrifice of time, sweat and effort. Positive energy not only on the field but the dugout and holding each other accountable said Granite coach Brody Shook.

#4 Navajo vs #5 Stuart

Thursday at 1:30pm

Last Appearance: Stuart (First since 1991) Navajo (First since 2021)

Navajo’s road to state

Navajo’s playoffs began with wins over Turner 23-2, Mason 23-1 and Asher 7-1 to advance to the state tournament.

We are 29-2 on the season ranked #5. We are located in Southwest, Oklahoma. We have a tradition of baseball. Last time we were in state was spring of 21. In regionals we beat beat Turner, Mason, Asher 7-1 to win the regional finals. We have work extremely hard for this moment. We have a relative young team with us only having one senior player. So this is valuable experience for us. Looking forward to the opportunity. This has been a goal of this team from The start of the spring. We didn’t talk about it much, but we all knew what the goal was. Now we’re here. We just need to get here and go try to take it one game at a time. It’s also exciting because our girls are in the state tournament as well. We just have to stay locked in and keep a normal routine. At the end of the day. It’s just baseball. I’m really excited for these kids. I have known these guys since they were literally kindergartners. I have been at Navajo for 17 years and I played baseball back here in the day. Another thing that’s pretty cool is my assistant coach. His name is Curtis Goodson and he played for me just like these kids. He was a 2017 Allstate player. So it was really a good experience being able to go to the state tournament as him as being my assistant because when he was a player here. We went to the state Tournament several times when he was playing said Navajo coach Weston Winters.

Stuart’s road to state

Stuart’s playoffs began with wins over Haileyville 13-0 and Braggs 12-0 and 12-1 in districts, Defeated Battiest 14-0 and Kremlin-Hillsdale 7-2 and 11-2 to advance to the state tournament

After making State in the Fall these kids set a goal to get back. There was nothing going to stop them. They worked extremely hard and no matter who the opponent was in front of them they went out and competed. We have 10 losses but it took a really good team to beat us. I like where we are at, we have been tested and know what to expect when we get there this time. We start 6 sometimes 7 sophomores so making State in the Fall was huge for us. We gain valuable experience every game. We have a really tough opponent in the first round, and I know we will give them our best shot. I’m proud of the kids I coach, they have worked extremely hard and deserve all the credit for our success said Stuart coach Josh Williams.

#3 Tupelo vs #6 Kiowa

Thursday at 4:00pm

Last Appearance: Tupelo (Fourth consecutive since 2021) Kiowa (Second consecutive)

Tupelo’s road to state

Tupelo’s playoffs began with wins over Calvin 15-0 and Graham-Dustin 18-0 and 16-0 in districts, Defeated Arnett 14-4 and Vici 22-4 and 8-1 to advance to the state tournament.

We have played and usually do play as tough a schedule as anyone in class B to prepare us just for that, obviously with the tradition we have here at Tupelo we expect to be in the field of 8 every season, we’re excited about the opportunity and feel as if we can make a run at a title if we go play our best baseball! said Tupelo coach Clay Weller

Kiowa’s road to state

Kiowa’s playoffs began with wins over Bokoshe 16-1 and Coleman 10-0 and 8-0 in districts, Defeated Covington-Douglas 11-1, Lomega 10-2 and Leedey 12-2 to advance to the state tournament.

Coming into this season there was a lot of anticipation and high expectations. When you include the fall seasons we had been to three straight state tournaments and a semifinals so going to four in a row was a big goal for us. Since we were returning everyone we definitely expected to make another run. Sometimes that can be tough for kids knowing there are high expectations but our kids have met every challenge head on, we have been really proud of how they’ve responded to tough situations during the season and are excited to see what we can do in the tournament said Kiowa coach Justin Wood

#2 Calumet vs #7 Roff

Thursday at 6:30pm

Last Appearance: Calumet (Second consecutive) Roff (22nd consecutive since 2002)

Calumet’s road to state

Calumet’s playoffs began with wins over Geary 15-0 and Carney 15-0 and 12-0, Defeated Maud 15-0 and Hammon 13-3 and 22-0 to advance to the state tournament.

This Spring started out slow after being in the finals for basketball, we took some time getting back in rhythm. But as of the last four weeks we have really been playing great baseball and looking forward to this week. Our seniors have been great leaders this spring and the other key players have been playing at very high level. We ended the season hitting .394 as a team the best of any team that I have coached in my career. We are really looking forward to getting to play this week against the best of the best in class B. Fort Cobb is the favorite after our let down in the fall finals but we feel like we have gotten better as a team and really ready for this week’s competition. We have really risen rather fast to the top here at Calumet in a short time. At that’s is mostly due to the work that everyone has out in throughout the entire program. Our JH has only lost two games for the fall and spring combined and the high school players have just continued to build and show the culture that we want for our baseball program said Calumet coach Cody Thiessen.

Roff’s road to state

Roff’s playoffs began with wins over Wapanucka 17-1 and 13-2 in districts, Defeated New Lima 12-0 and Copan 10-0 to advance to the state tournament

From fall to spring expectations changed for me. Fall we surprised people but I felt this spring no one took us for granted. We struggled some this spring but started playing better about 1st week of April when we finally got into a decent rhythm of playing. My seniors have been to 8 state tournaments and the look on their face after clinching our spot was one of as if it was 1st time ever going. It’s special every time you get the opportunity to play the final week of the season said Roff coach Derek Collins.


Comments

Leave a comment