Bears drop low-scoring duel, first loss of home regional

One swing was all it took to change the game and the outlook of Noble’s postseason.

Through four and a half innings, Noble and Midwest City were hitless. The Bears took advantage of an error in the second inning to set up their first run of the game.

They still held a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. The Bombers got their second runner of the game on base with a leadoff walk.

Noble starting pitcher Weston Randolph seemed to settle in after that, striking out the next batter in a full count. However, he went on to hit two of the next three batters to load up the bases with two outs down.

Midwest City’s Bryan Williams Jr. swung on the second pitch of the at-bat and knew immediately that it was heading over the left field wall.

The grand slam put the Bombers ahead for good in a 4-1 win in the second round of the Noble Regional.

“They had one hit and that hit came in a timely manner and our hits didn’t come at a timely manner,” Noble head coach Erik Hughes said. “And, you know, we’ve just got to relax. We’ve got to relax and regroup and come back tomorrow.”

The Bears’ hopes of earning their fourth straight state tournament berth are still within reach. They’ll play either Guymon or Southeast on Friday at 2 p.m. If they win, they’ll set up a rematch with Midwest City, needing to win two over the Bombers to advance to state.

Williams’ home run ended up being the only hit Randolph and the Bears’ defense allowed all day.

He struck out seven batters, walked just one and hit two.

“The kid definitely is a warrior out there,” Hughes said. “He just made one mistake today. That’s the tough thing about this in playoff baseball, you make one mistake and the other team capitalizes on it, there’s not much you can do. We have to come back tomorrow and capitalize on their mistakes.”

The three-run deficit put the Bears in a hole, but there were still opportunities to climb back into the game late. Randolph struck out the final batter to end the inning and then was the first batter up in the next frame.

He hit a chopper towards the second baseman that wasn’t fielded cleanly, giving the Bears a leadoff runner. Trevor Hand hit a low line drive towards right field that might’ve scored the Bears’ second run, but Midwest City first baseman Kevin Nelson jumped up and caught it for the second out.

Trent Shortes got the Bears’ second hit of the game on a single into center field and was able to pick up an extra base on the throw. With the tying run at home plate, the Bombers forced a groundout to end the threat.

The Bears got two runners on base again in the seventh, one on a dropped third strike and another on an error, but couldn’t score any more runs.

Hughes said the Bears don’t need to change anything in order to get back on track on Friday.

“Calm down, don’t try to be a hero,” he said. “It’s still a game and don’t make it more than that. At times these young kids try to do too much and we’ve just got to calm down and go play the game.”