By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
The ping ping ball effect.
That’s what Yukon and the middle of the district 6A-1 baseball standings are going through.
The Millers dropped an 8-2 decision to Edmond North that gave the Huskies a sweep of their series and sent YHS to fourth place in the standings with four district games remaining.
The Millers, 11-11 overall, slipped to 5-5 in district play, one game behind Edmond Memorial for third place. The Millers are one game ahead of Mustang and Putnam City North. YHS plays its series with the Panthers Monday and Tuesday. The Millers host PC North Monday at 4:30 p.m. and plays at North on Tuesday.
“We weren’t as sharp on the mound, had some defensive miscues and didn’t hit again yesterday,” Miller head coach Kevin James said. “We hit some balls hard at them throughout the day, but not enough to do damage to where we could score runs. We struck out too many times.
“It goes back to the positive at bats again,” he said. “We have to get something out of AB’s and not just go to the plate. Edmond North did make some plays. We hit some balls well in the late innings and they made plays.
“It is everything around that. You have to do things that are going to give you an opportunity. Walking up then turning around and walking back to the dugout is not going to give you much of a chance.”
Edmond North struck for four runs in the top of the first inning and that turned the tide of the game. Jackie Robinson, who also started on the mound and limited the Millers to three hits, keyed the inning with an RBI single. A sacrifice fly, a ground out and a Miller error led to the other three runs.
The Millers did cut the lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the inning on an RBI double from Carson Benge. Nollan Koon had walked and Benge’s hit came with two outs.
Yukon also got two runners on base in the bottom of the second inning, but stranded both and didn’t threaten again until the seventh inning, but trailed 8-1 at that point.
Drew Janvrin and Mason McIntyre had both singled and Hunter Brown’s ground out drove in the run. A ground out ended the rally and the threat.
“It all goes back to taking care of your business,” James said. “We didn’t take care of our business and had too many one, two, three innings. You can’t do that and compete with people.
“We have to in the next two with Putnam City North,” he said. “Those are going to be huge games and North is not a bad team. We will see another good pitcher on Monday and we will have o be sharper on defense than we were in this one.
