By Trey Hunter
Sports Editor
The Warriors are rounding into form as the 2019 Class A postseason arrives.
Okarche picked up a pair of big wins to all but close out the regular season last week, including a 5-0 win over No. 10 Cashion Friday and a 4-1 win over No. 12 Ripley Monday on senior night.
With the district tournament scheduled to start today, coach Mark Framel is happy with how his team has adjusted to certain situations late in the year, especially down the stretch.
“We’ve started to put things together,” Framel said. “We’ve matured the last couple of weeks as far as following negatives with positives and getting through tough situations.
Early on it was always that one inning that we just let snowball. Now we’re facing adversity much better and cutting down on mistakes and really limiting what could be big innings for our opponents.”
Against Cashion, Preston Hawk struck out 11 batters and allowed just three hits on rout to the win. Hawk saw one big inning that could have turned the game around, but got out of the jam with a bunt-pop up, a pop fly in the infield and a ground ball to secure the shutout win.
The Warriors celebrated senior night against Ripley with a three-run victory. Framel was able to play the whole squad and enjoyed relishing in the win with his group of seniors.
“It was awesome,” Framel said. “We’re super blessed to have those guys. I told them in the fall that after three coaches their last three years we really had a chance to work together and build a family and culture. They all bought into that and made it happen. It was a great ceremony for them.”
Okarche now turns its sights to the first round of postseason play. The Warriors are scheduled to host district tournament action today and Friday with Southwest Covenant and Hydro-Eakly coming to town. The Warriors have faced both teams in the fall and spring and Framel sees it as a tough draw for all three squads.
“Looking around the state I really think we all got a pretty tough draw,” Framel said. “We know the other two teams pretty well and all three of us have hovered around the top-25 all year long. Our guys are anxious for it though and we’ll be ready to go.”
Hydro-Eakly and Southwest Covenant are scheduled for the first game at 2 p.m. today before Okarche takes on SWC at 4 p.m. and Hydro at 6 p.m.
Games could be either postponed or delayed due to weather delays from possible storms Wednesday night.
