Johnny McMahan
Woodward News
Woodward, Okla. —
State champions once again.
The Woodward Travelers defeated the Southwest Shockers 7-5 to win a second consecutive Oklahoma Town League State Championship Saturday night at Fuller Park.
Woodward's 50th win was its biggest of the season.
Ryan Ainsworth and Zach Warner homered and the Travelers overcame 5 errors to defeat a gutsy Southwest Shocker team that survived an 11-inning battle with Enid earlier Saturday just to reach the championship round.
Woodward used 5 pitchers in the game, bringing in the big guns to close it out as Colin Hightower pitched out of a jam in the 7th and Jonathan Johnson retired 6 of 7 batters he faced in the final 2 innings to seal the win.
The Shockers led twice at 2-1 and 3-2 before the Travelers went ahead for good with 3 runs in the bottom of the 5th inning.
Zach Friesen was hit by a pitch to start the inning and scored on a triple by Connor Ross off the center field fence. Ross scored the go-ahead run on a grounder by Aaron McCandless, then Ainsworth blasted his 27th home run of the season to make it 5-3.
The Shockers scored in the top of the 6th, but the Travelers answered in the bottom half as Bobby Davis doubled and scored ahead of Zach Warner's towering home run to left center.
In the 7th, the Shockers got 2 quick hits off Chalmer Wyatt, then the Travelers called on Hightower, the winning pitcher in Friday's epic 12-inning victory over the Shockers.
Hightower got 2 outs before an error allowed a run. He finished the 7th by striking out the dangerous Terrell Evans.
From that point, Johnson took over, getting a big defensive play by Davis in right field in the 8th, then striking out 4 of the final 5 batters he faced, including tough leadoff hitter Brant Lankford to end the game and spark the state championship celebration.
Ainsworth, the second of 5 Traveler pitchers, got the victory.
Michael Patton started and ended up taking the loss. Evans threw in relief.
Earlier on Saturday, the Shockers beat Enid 9-6 in an 11-inning game that was twiice delayed by weather. The game actually started at noon and didn't finish until almost 6 p.m.
Billy Love pitched all 11 innings for the victory.
