BASEBALL: Collinsville ends Claremore's season at regionals

May 11—COLLINSVILLE — Claremore needed a big hit, and Noah Smallwood and Brooks Sherl came through at just the right time.

With the score at 4-all in the bottom of the sixth, Smallwood launched a triple to center field before Sherl scored him with a tiebreaking single five pitches later on a 2-2 count. The Zebras were suddenly three outs away from forcing an "if" game and giving themselves an opportunity to clinch a fourth-consecutive Class 5A state tournament berth.

"Noah is one of our guys," Claremore coach Jim Sherl said. "He's one of our top five or six hitters, and when we needed someone to come up and get something big going, he has done it. Noah steps up there — and he's been hitting the ball hard all weekend — and hits it over the kid's head. That was huge, and then Brooks coming out there with two strikes and hitting the ball up the middle to score him.

"Those two guys have been doing that all year for us, and for a matter of fact, it's been the last three or four years."

However, Collinsville (25-10) had no interest in returning to Pat Colpitt Field on Saturday for an elimination game.

The Cardinals immediately loaded the bases in response and took a permanent lead with a pair of runs on an error, leading to a 7-5 victory in the Class 5A East Regional 6 championship Friday night. Conner Duncan and Hayden Vanderwaerdt scored the go-ahead runs, and Hayden Barnes added another on a sacrifice fly from Ryan Shoulders.

The loss ended Claremore's season at 20-17. Not including the canceled 2020 season, the Zebras won't be competing in the state tournament for the first time since 2016. Conversely, Collinsville is returning for a third-consecutive year.

Claremore finished the season losing seven of its last 10 games while the Cardinals have won 19 of their last 21 and will ride a three-game winning streak into their first-round matchup against Carl Albert at 7 p.m. Thursday at Edmond Santa Fe.

Despite the circumstances, Jim Sherl said he isn't disappointed in the slightest.

"I'm extremely proud of our kids for the way they competed," Jim Sherl said. "There is no disappointment. I'm just proud of them for overcoming everything they had to overcome and everything they had to do and be a part of, and I'm proud of the way they took care of themselves and their teammates. We didn't have any COVID issues.

"Our No. 1 goal at the start of the year was to play our best baseball at the end of the year, and I thought we did. I thought that was a great performance by both teams."

The Zebras held leads of 3-0 and 4-3 but couldn't hang on to either.

Smallwood scored on a groundout from Cameron Palmer for the game's first run in the first inning, and Scout Cutsinger added two more to the tally in the second when he singled in Hunter Walters and Carson Young.

Collinsville began its comeback in the third, trimming the deficit to one at 3-2 when Duncan drove in Baylor Weathers with a single and Cage Edgmon scored on a Braden Keith sac fly.

Keith wasn't done there, though, for he scored Chayse Schlomann with a single to center field in the fifth to make it a 3-all score. Palmer regained the lead for Claremore shortly thereafter, scoring on a wild pitch.

The Cardinals answered again, this time with a Hunter Harlan double that scored John Masingale.

Collinsville finished with 12 hits in the victory, besting Claremore by two. Schlomann, Duncan, Barnes and Weathers each finished with two hits.

As a result, Palmer took the loss for the Zebras. He pitched two innings of relief, allowing three hits, three runs and two walks while striking out one on 52 pitches. Ethan Grimett and Smallwood also saw time on the mound.

Schlomann earned the win, going 4.2 innings and pitching four strikeouts while surrendering seven hits, four runs and four walks with four strikeouts. Landon Bunch and Keith helped stave off Claremore in the final 2.1 innings.

Brooks Sherl, Palmer and Walters accounted for six of the Zebras' 10 hits, notching two apiece.

"We won 20 games this year, and take out the corona year, I think that's five or maybe six years straight of 20 wins," Jim Sherl said. "There's not a lot of high school teams out there that get 20 wins in a season. Purposely, I scheduled as tough as I could. We scheduled a lot of 6A opponents, a lot of nondistrict, really good 5A teams. We played as tough a schedule as we could.

"To play that schedule and still come out with 20 wins was really good for this group."

Earlier in the day, Claremore defeated Durant 10-0 thanks to a nine-run first inning. Six of its seven hits, including a 2-RBI double from Smallwood, came during that opening frame.

Brooks Sherl and Grimett both finished with two hits to lead the Zebras at the plate, and Easton Phillips pitched them to victory with four strikeouts on 68 pitches through five innings, allowing three hits and two walks.