Tornadoes mauled by Tigers

The Drumright Tornadoes hosted a very talented Cushing Tiger baseball team Friday. The Tornadoes start six sophomores, two freshmen (another had to play later) and one junior. The Tornadoes lost 15-3, but after three innings, Cushing only led 5-3.

Cushing wasn’t about to quit with a veteran lineup of mostly juniors. Chantz McBride, a senior, hit a homer in teethe first inning to give Cushing the 1-0 lead. Cushing stranded a baserunner when the inning was over, but scored three more to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead.

Cushing’s Wyatt Heisler led off with a single, Jake Horn had a double, scoring Heisler, McBride singled in Horn, Riley Matheson singled in McBride.The Tornadoes picked a run in the second. Bryson Kelley walked, stole second, then scored on a later error.

Howdy Welch also walked in the second.

Cushing led 4-1 after two innings.

Rilery Salker doubled and Blaze Berlowitz singled in Walker.

In the bottom of the third, the Tornadoes scored two runs as Tye Snell singled and Dustyn Bruce made a hard to handle bunt and the Tigers couldn’t get to the speedy Bruce in time.

Cole Gregory swatted a double, knocking in Tye Snell and Bruce.

After that, Cushing started hitting the ball hard.

McBride had an RBZI as did Blaze Berlowitz. Heisler walked, scoring a run and Connor Pritchett walked, scoring Brody Berlowitz, who was walked earlier. The score was 9-3.

In the top of the fifth, Cushing scored six runs as McBride, who was 4 for 4, got another hit

Matheson knocked in another RBI and it kept getting worse for the Tornadoes.

Drumright played with a lot of effort, but were still too green to pull it off against a veteran Tiger team.

Some real solid hits from Cushing could have been ruled errors against the Tornadoes, and the Tornadoes took advantage of a couple errors from Cushing.

For the most part, Cushing hit the ball very hard.

Brody Berlowitz had a dog bel in the fifth. Horn McBride and Blaze Berlowitz all had 3 RBI’s.

Bryson Kelley for the Tornadoes hit a deep fly out and Gregory’s deep shot resulted in a double.

Freshman Tornado catcher Blaine Snell was hit by a pitch, he also threw out a Cushing baserunner and endured some pain being hit by several foul balls. The small frame played huge for the Tornadoes.

On the mound, Cole Gregory struck out seven Cushing batters, although the Tigers hit him pretty hard all evening.

Bryson Kelly pitched the fifth but Drumright had three errors in that inning and Cushing had three hits.

Tiger Freshman Rowdy Jackson struck out six tornadoes and freshman Statler Etheridge pitched around five outs. Then the main event, Jake Horn, who has drawn interest from Wichita State came in. Welch throws gas pitches, some of which were over 80 miles per hour. He struck out three Tornadoes.

Making defensive plays for the Tornadoes were shortstop Bryson Kelley, pitcher Cole Gregory, third baseman Kevin Gooch, who pitched the final out in the top pf the fifth inning.

Also Tye Snell, Blaine Snell, Dustyn Bruce, Gavin Brimmer, who caught a long fly ball in left field; Howdy Welch played well on first bas. Others played were Jaxon Bolton, Jackson Mach, Tanner Willing.

Defensive plays made by Cushing came from shortstop Brody Berlowitz, second baseman Brock Bales, a freshman; Rowdy Jackson at the mound and Horn in center.

Tornado Coaching staff is Rip Garcia, Trevor Middleton, Seth Lloyd and Graham Gooch.