The Dale Pirates, fresh off of another Regional championship, begin action Thursday (today) in the state Class 2A baseball tournament.
The Pirates, sporting an overall season record of 26- 3, will take on Hartshorne at 4 p.m. at Palmer Field at Dolese Park in Oklahoma City. That is located at 50th and Meridian in OKC.
The Pirates defeated Pawnee twice and Walters once as they allowed only two runs during their three games in the Regionals.
Junior hurler Connor Kuykendall tossed a no hitter in the opener of the Regional tourney hosted by Dale and the Pirates pounded out 10 hits as they blanked Pawnee 10-0 in five innings.
Kuykendall helped his own cause with two of those 10 hits by the Pirates.
In their second game about four hours later, the Pirates unleashed another bombardment collecting 14 hits on their way in cruising to a 17-1 win against Walters.
Senior pitcher Ike Shirey got the win, only pitching two innings while sophomore JB Leaver threw the final 3 12. They combined to scatter five hits by Walters.
Walters also committed three errors in the contest.
In the final game of the tourney, Dale ripped Pawnee for a second time in two days, winning easily 11-1 in six innings.
Senior Carson Hunt was the winning pitcher as he and freshman Dayton Forsythe limited Pawnee to a single hit, a homer, and the Pirates collected 15 hits.