By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
WARR ACRES – Three for three.
Southwest Covenant has played baseball for three seasons and the Patriots have now won three district titles in a row.
Sam Webb hurled a no-hitter and the Patriots had the key hits they needed to post a 6-0 win over Calumet and took the class B District 23 title Friday afternoon at Palmer Field in Dolese Park.
The only thing that kept Webb from throw a perfect game was one Patriot error. He faced only 22 batters and struck out 15.
The Patriots, 17-11, will now head to the regional tournament. SWCS will find out Monday were the regionals will be and who will be in the tournament when the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association releases the bracket.
SWCS took control of the game and scored all the runs they would really need in the tournament in the second inning, push-ing three runs across. The game was closer than the first meeting between the teams on Thursday, a 14-1 blowout by the Patriots. SWCS had opened the tournament with a 15-1 rout of Midway.
“It was a good win, we played well,” Patriot head coach Jeff Deckard said. “It was a closer game than the first, but they had a little lefty that threw the ball well.
“Sam threw about as best as I have seen him throw in his career here at the school,” he added. “He had good command of his pitches and we played good defense behind him.”
The Patriots will make their third straight trip to the regionals and last year came within one game of the state tournament. SWCS is looking to take that next step.
“We are peaking at the right time,” Deckard said. “We are getting good pitching, timely hitting the ball well, we have developed into a pretty good little ball team. We are playing well. This is our third year in existence as far as a varsity team and we have worked toward these moments and are playing well.”
Calumet had no answer against Webb, who retired the first 19 batters he faced before an error with one out in the top of the seventh inning broke up his perfect game.
Webb helped out himself with a two-run home run in the bottom of the second inning to spark a 3-0 lead. Andrew Hickman and Cole Shaw had reached on errors and Logan Shields’ ground out drove in the first run.
Webb drilled a 3-1 pitch over the left field wall opened a 3-1 lead.
The Patriots made it 4-0 in the third inning on an RBI single after a double by Ben Webb. Hickman’s ground out scored Trevor Kelly from third after he had tripled in the fifth inning to open a 5-0 lead.
Will Haas’ ground out had scored Logan Shields (who had sin-gled) for the final run of the game.
Kelly had two of the eight Patriot hits in the game and drove in one run. Webb had two RBIs on one hit.
