By Michael Pineda
Staff Writer
EDMOND – Piedmont is going to the ‘ship.
The Wildcats scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth and tacked on an insurance run in the sixth to lock down a reservation in the Class 5A state championship game Saturday with a 10-8 win over Sapulpa. It is the first trip to the championship since 2016 when Piedmont lost to Shawnee.
“It is a great honor to get to the state tournament,” Piedmont head coach Adam Skokowski said. “But to take the next step and win a championship you have to go out and do some damage.”
You also have to be able and prevent some damage.
Junior Jakeb Koop took the mound in the fourth inning with Piedmont trailing 8-4. He promptly shut down the Chieftain offense and limited it to two hits in 3.1 innings of work, striking out four and giving up one walk to pick up the win
Leading into the Sapulpa game, Koop had only pitched five innings this season. Skokowski said the right-hander was injured and missed the first month. He had one start and a couple of relief appearances, none bigger than against Sapulpa.
“He was nails,” Skokowski said.
“If you have only thrown five innings and come in nails for however many innings he was in there, that showed me something.”
Offensively, Piedmont did some damage and took advantage of Sapulpa miscues. The Chieftains committed three errors along with some untimely wild pitches.
The first inning was a sign of things to come as Sapulpa committed two errors which resulted in two Piedmont runs. Weston Thomas also scored on a wild pitch as the Wildcats gave a 4-0 lead to Fidel Hatch.
Hatch had not have problems through the first two innings but struggled in the third and fourth. Sapulpa scored four runs with six hits in a row in the third. A two-run hit by Peter Shibley and double by Kaiden Ashton did the most damage. Piedmont limited the damage thanks to a relay home in time for Jackson Harriger to tag out Shibley.
Sapulpa scored four more in the fourth as Garrett Richards hit a two-run single and Ashton a solo homer for an 8-4 lead. Hatch gave way to Dalton Hampton, who faced two batters and gave up the homer before giving way to Koop.
Piedmont chipped away with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. In the fifth, Trey Migl led off with a walk and with one out, Noah Smith reached on a walk. Skokowski turned to pinch-hitter Jordan Askren who delivered with an RBI double to pull Piedmont within 8-7. Harriger followed with a flyout to right field but a throw home sailed to the backstop, allowing Smith to score and tie the game. Cole Riggs followed with an RBI single to lift the Wildcats to a 9-8 lead.
“That was a very clean game for us defensively,” Skokowski said.
“When you play that clean on defense, you give yourself a chance. Everybody is prone to making mistakes and luckily we put a zero on the scoreboard.”
Koop worked through a threat in the bottom of the sixth, coming up big against Sapulpa standout Alejandro Diaz. Diaz came to bat with runners on first and second with two outs. Koop said he was focused on not giving up anything over the middle and made what he called the biggest pitch of his career and forced a foul out to first base to end the inning.
Piedmont tacked on one in the sixth as a Thomas double scored Gabe Clyden. The defense held up its end and the game ended with Harriger throwing out Logan Rains on a stolen base attempt.
“This team, since they have been together, it has been pretty much all the starters for the past two years, they have been known to come back and hang in there,” Skokowski said. “They just don’t give up and it showed again today.”
Thomas was 2-for-3 with two doubles, two RBI and a run to lead the way. Riggs finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored.
Piedmont will face the winner of Collinsville and Duncan at 3 p.m., Saturday at the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
