CHICKASHA —
The Chickasha High School baseball team beat Lawton MacArthur at Elliott Field on Monday evening in the first of a two-game series with the Highlanders.
Chickasha won the game 5-3, coming back after going down three runs in the first inning. The Fightin' Chicks are now 19-8 this season with three games remaining.
Blake Burns pitched a complete game for Chickasha, allowing three runs on five hits. All three of the runs and four out of the five hits came in the first inning.
In the final six innings, Burns shut MacArthur out, allowing only one hit and striking out six batters.
In the first inning, Chickasha got MacArthur's lead-off man out on a 6-3 ground ball. The next hitter doubled, the 3-hole batter singled, and the clean-up man hit an RBI single.
The Highlanders' fifth batter popped up to right field for the second out. Burns then walked the next two batters, the second of them accounting for the second run of the game.
The eighth batter hit an RBI single for Lawton MacArthur's third and final run of the contest.
"Blake just started out a little flat again," head coach Brad Gore said. "He did the same thing against McAlester the other night, just had a rough first inning and then settled in."
Immediately after getting down, the Fightin' Chicks began the gradual process of getting back in the game.
Chickasha scored one run in the bottom of the first inning, when Lane Smith scored on a double-steal play. He initially reached base on an error by the second baseman.
In the second inning, Zach Ervin reached base on an error by the MacArthur third baseman, and eventually scored on another error.
Lane Smith was hit by a pitch to reach base with no outs in the third inning, advanced to third on a single by John Mitchell, and scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
With the game tied, Chickasha took the lead once and for all in the fourth inning. Derek Sullivan hit a single to lead off the inning. He stole second base, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and was driven home on an RBI single by Cade Morris.
Morris scored on a sac fly by Smith, giving Chickasha a 5-3 lead, which it took to the end of the game.
Morris went 2-for-3 with one RBI and one walk. Mitchell went 3-for-3, although he missed first base on what would have been a double and was thrown out at first to end the fourth inning.
The Chicks left some potential runs on the bases, and had a couple of runners thrown out at home, but Gore said that is just a product of the aggressive style Chickasha plays.
"We got thrown out at the plate twice, that's my fault," Gore said. "I get the guys thrown out twice at the plate by being aggressive, but that's how we play."
With only a few games left before the playoffs begin, Gore said the team is almost where it needs to be.
"We're close to where we've always been," Gore said. "We need tomorrow for Lane to go out and throw us a good game to establish that other starter that can go five or six innings and get us through a game. That's probably been our Achilles' heel.
"I think we're really close, we've just got to go out there and get better this week."
Chickasha played MacArthur in Lawton on Tuesday night, and is scheduled to play a make-up game at home against Ardmore at 5 p.m. Friday.
