Deer Creek Drops Semifinal to Mustang

The third baseman snagged the hard-hit ball out of the air, ending any hope of a comeback.

The Deer Creek baseball team’s season ended in the state semifinals Friday afternoon in a 4-2 loss to Mustang at Edmond Memorial.

Deer Creek (35-4) lost to just three teams all year, but Mustang has now beaten the Antlers twice.

Mustang (25-12) will play for its third baseball state championship in Enid on Saturday.

Deer Creek coach Roland Baza said the Antlers competed well.

“They all came out, and they were ready and competed,” Baza said. “Had a couple of rough breaks there early on, and we had a lot of barrels there and just couldn’t get the ones that counted to fall. The last out of the game shows you right there.”

Mustang scored all its runs in the second inning. Sophomore Graham Hylton hit a 2-RBI single to take the lead. Later in the inning, junior pitcher Kyle Mantooth hit a two-out RBI single to add to the lead. A fourth run scored thanks to a fielding error on the play.

Deer Creek scored its runs in the sixth. With two outs, sophomore Luke Schimmels pinch hit and singled to score two. Both runs were unearned due to an earlier error. The next batter hit into a fielder’s choice to end the rally.

Baza said Schimmels has been an important piece off the bench.

“In regionals, he had three at bats and got on base all three times and had some big RBIs,” Baza said. “Just trying to pick the right time for him to go in… He’s been swinging a hot bat, and so we had a lot of faith in him to go in there and get the job done, and he did.”

Any momentum the Antlers built failed to continue into the seventh as Mustang retired the Deer Creek hitters in order to finish the game.

Mantooth earned the complete-game win. In seven innings, he struck out one and walked two. He allowed no earned runs on four hits.

Senior Jack Hill pitched all six innings for Deer Creek. He struck out nine and walked four. He surrendered three earned runs on five hits.

Baza said this season was about the seniors.

“Our seniors set the tone from the very beginning,” Baza said. “Guys like Bryce Logan, Jack Hill, Ty Hammack, Keaton Ruthardt, Zandt Payne. Those are program guys. They set the tone for how the year’s going to go for us, and the rest followed suit. It’s all on those guys. Those guys did a great job every day just setting the tone of what Deer Creek baseball is going to be. Hopefully, the younger guys follow suit and learn from it and continue that tradition. Deer Creek baseball’s something that’s going to be around here in 6A to stay for a while.”