Newcastle High School’s baseball team punched its ticket to State for the ninth time in school history with two Super Regional wins Wednesday evening.
Number 7 Newcastle defeated No. 10 Perkins-Tryon 7-2 and 4-2 in a best-of-three series behind satisfactory pitching performances from sophomores Tyler Frazier and Ryder Gibson, respectively, and all-around performances from the supporting cast.
“Our pitching was good in the regional, but in the Super Regional it was very good,” said Racers’ firstyear head coach Jarod King. “We’ve been swinging the bat well, but we executed a lot more bunts in the Super Regional. We got bunts down that we weren’t getting down at the beginning of the year or much of the Regional. And then defensively, I think we made two errors maybe in the two games.
“So we did accomplish the smaller things on a larger scale than we have been doing.”
Frazier pitched six innings in the Racers’ first win and gave up only seven hits while tossing seven strikeouts. Meanwhile, junior Jackson Schanuel hit 2-4 with two runs, including a home run and two RBI, and Gibson hit 2-3 with a triple, two runs and three RBIs.
Somehow, Gibson was even more valuable on the mound in the elimination game.
“Both pitched really well, but man, the second game, Ryder Gibson went 102 pitches, I think, seven innings, 11 strikeouts, three walks, two hits,” King said. “He did what you would want your guy to do. He took the ball and dominated the game for us.”
The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association Class 4A State Tournament is scheduled for May 9-11. This will be Newcastle’s first appearance since 2019 and the first for anybody on the team today, but King has experience in that department. He made three appearances as an assistant at Chickasha and three as the head coach at Fletcher.
King is preaching to his Racers, “Do what you do. Don’t let the moment be too big and think about I’m at the State tournament. It’s just another game against another team,” King said. “Try to keep your emotions in check and just don’t go outside yourself.
“Don’t do what you don’t do. If you don’t hit home runs, don’t try to hit a home run. If you’re not a guy that steals bases, don’t try to steal bases. Just try to make all the routine plays and stay in the moment as much as you can.”
King said it’s been a great first year and he doesn’t want to see it end. He added that the Racers just need to keep it going for three more games.
