It was 2-for-2: Oxford baseball and softball teams win SCBL-WJL Tournament Championships

May 12, 2023 Cueball

Oxford baseball team wins the regional championship.

Oxford girls’ softball team wins the regional championship.

Sumner Newscow report — What an evening for those who make up the Oxford Wildcat Nation.

The Oxford baseball and softball teams swept the South-Central Border League-Walter Johnson League Tournament championship at the Broadway Sports Complex in Winfield. The Oxford baseball team defeated Central Burden 10-0. Earlier in the day, the Oxford girls’ softball team defeated Flinthills 3-1 in the tourney championship.

Now both teams head to the important regional tournaments next week.

For the baseball team, Oxford knocked out Central, the team for which it shared the regular season title.

Behind the pitching of Connor Commerford, Oxford shut out the Raiders. Commerfield allowed just two hits, walked one, and struck out seven in five innings of pitching. Johnny Elliott came in relief in the final two innings, getting two strikeouts while giving up a hit.

“Commerford threw a heck of a game for us,” said Oxford head coach Kyle Green. “He commanded the zone and limited his pitch count. We were able to ride him into the sixth.”

Offensively, Oxford got eight hits and benefitted from four Raider errors to score 10 runs. Oxford took a 3-0 first-inning lead, and the score remained the same until the fifth when Colby Hammond used a squeeze bunt with the bases loaded to spark a four-run fifth inning. Oxford added two runs in the sixth and a run in the seventh for the double-digit win.

“Offensively, we got huge contributions from guys you would expect like Hilten, Elliott, Peytron Rush, Commerford, Hayden Ruyle,” Green said. “But Sam Wheeler had himself a night with three RBIs and came up with the timely hit to break the game open.”

This marks Oxford’s first SCBL/WJL Tournament Championship since 2005. Even the state tournament team in 2017 did not make it.

“It has been long time coming since we won this thing,” Green said. “Our seniors deserved this one. They have worked so hard and been through so much final get to this point is huge for them.”

Oxford is now 16-3 and will be the top seed in the Central-Burden Regional Boys Baseball tournament next week. They will play the winner of West Elk/Udall at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, barring weather.

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The Oxford girls scored all of its three runs in the first inning and then held up defensively the rest of the game to win the tournament championship. Emery Commerford opened the game with a triple and came home on a Sophie Bain single. Then Treva Williams would smack an RBI triple to make it 3-0.

The Oxford offense would never score another run. It did load the bases in the bottom of the second but failed to get in a run. Flinthills would never allow another Oxford runner past second base thereafter.

Flinthills scored its only run in the fourth off a double and throwing error. The Mustangs were making noise in the fifth with girls on second and third with one out. But two pop-up flies thwarted any scoring. Oxford would go on to win this defensive battle.

The Wildcats are now 18-1. Oxford will be the No. 2 seed as Bluestem is 19-1. This is going to be a tough regional.