area baseball: copan continues winning streak; barnsdall downs woodland; oklahoma union defeats Caney valley
Copan High School’s Xavier Alston (12) pitches during an earlier season game. The Hornets (12-7) hosts the Super Six Conference Tournament on Friday.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
April 17, 2025
By Mike Tupa
Following are reports of recent area sports action.
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COPAN BASEBALL
The measuring stick of a team’s character and sturdiness under pressure is how it competes in the close ones — win, lose or tie.
The Copan Hornets proved both the depth of their scrappiness and their steely focus during a 3-1 victory earlier this week at Afton.
Daniel Wren’s squad collected its 12th win (12-7) while extending its winning streak to three straight.
Zane Sticklin, Xavier Alston and Shooter Brewington took turns pitching for Copan to share in the winning decision.
Stricklin kept Afton scoreless through two innings and Alston continued the shutout through six innings.
After Afton opened the bottom of the seventh with two walks, Wren called on Brewington as his closer.
Afton scratched home one run against him but he struck out the side to earn the save.
Copan’s offense, meanwhile, did what it needed to lift the Hornets to their fourth win in games decided by three-or-fewer runs.
It all came down to the top of the sixth when Alston drew a leadoff walk and then bulleted to third on a combination of a sacrifice bunt by Zane Agnew and an error. Zane ended up safe on first base. Elijah Evans followed with a single to drive in Alston for what would be the winning run.
Evans finished 2-for-3 at the plate and Sticklin went 3-for-4.
In addition to the pitching and offensive highlights, “it was pretty clean defensively,” Wren said. “We didn’t have any errors and were able to capitalize on a few of their mistakes.”
Copan closes out this week by hosting on Friday the Super Six Conference Tournament.
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BARNSDALL BASEBALL
The Panthers relied on a Bodie-acious pitching effort to take the axe to Woodland, 12-2, earlier this week.
Bodie Clark spun the complete-game masterpiece with Tripp Barbee as his catcher.
It likely would have been a shutout if not for some defensive miscues, coach Ryan Gott noted.
Meanwhile the Panther offense literally laid the wood against Woodland.
Gavin Wood slammed a two-run homer to right-center pace the assault. Barbee added a two-run double in the third inning.
Clark contributed a base hit, Lincoln Gott ripped the ball hard and Brohk Townley came up just a pigeon’s burp short of a homer. His line drive smoker barely missed going out, hitting the top of the fence inside to hold him to a single.
Andrew Cole also delivered a “really good double,” coach Gott said.
The Panthers ended the game on a defensive highlight — a Cole-to-Wood-to-Townley doubleplay.
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-By Becky Burch
After three straight one-run losses, Oklahoma Union (13-7) delivered powerhouse hitting against local rival, Caney Valley on Tuesday in Ramona.
OKU’s Sam Hill delivered a home run to lead the Cougars in a 12-4 victory over the Trojans.
The 2A Cougars fell to 3A Sequoyah (Claremore) on the road Thursday. The two met back in March in the Ironmen Classic in Nowata, where the Cougars lost by just one run, 6-5.
OKU, who is coached by Aaron Funkhouser, hosts Skiatook on Friday.
Oklahoma Union’s Sam Hill shows off a home run ball earlier this week.
Courtesy photo