Okarche baseball on upward trend

Okarche’s ascension up the baseball ranks may have surprised some, but not everyone.

The Warriors reached the semifinals of the Class A fall state tournament this season.

They were eventually knocked out with a 5-1 loss to eventual state champ Rattan.

It was the program’s first appearance in a state baseball tournament since the spring of 2015 and the first time in the fall since 2010.

For many, it was a shocking run by the Warriors.

The Sooner State Baseball Report released its “Fall Super Six” final rankings after the state tournament. The rankings are for both Class A and Class B teams.

Okarche was ranked sixth and the report read, “It is safe to say that Okarche may have been the most underrated team in either class this season.”

Despite being ranked ninth in the final Class A poll, the Warriors were flying under the radar in part due to their modest recent history.

Last fall, Okarche was 14-10 and didn’t get out of the district tournament.

The previous spring and the previous fall seasons were quite similar.

But the team made a major jump between last fall and last spring.

Despite many of the team’s contributors being on the basketball squad that reached the Class A state tournament between those seasons, Okarche made a vast improvement.

The Warriors went 21-8 and were within a single win of making state.

After upsetting No. 4 Dewar to make the regional championship, Okarche was then beaten by the Dragons in back-to-back games with a spot at state on the line.

This fall, as coach Ryan Beaman began his fifth year in charge of the program, there was no setback.

The Warriors were stellar in the regular season, suffering losses only to Ft. Cobb-Broxton, Calumet and Dale.

All were by one run and two of them in extra-innings.

Okarche later beat both Calumet and Ft. Cobb - the two teams that played for the Class B state championship - in rematches.

Dale also made the Class A state tournament field.

Prior to getting there, Okarche was knocked off by top-ranked Oktaha in a regional final. ( Note: In the fall, there are four regionals in each class and two teams from each regional advance to state.)

Okarche had already beaten No. 8 Tushka and then repeated that feat the next day to punch its ticket.

Once at state, Okarche shutout No. 2 Wister in the quarterfinal round.

In the span of a year, Okarche went from a team that couldn’t get out of a district tournament to a state semifinalist.

How? For one, there’s talent. Four Warriors this year hit above .300 and two more were better than .280.

Easton Roby led the way with a .393 clip. He also led the team with hits (35) and scored a team-high 44 runs.

Jett Mueggenborg batted .338 and joined Roby in having an on-base percentage of at least .500.

Colin Hendrickson hit .333 and Brett Carnott .318. They combined for 48 RBIs and 53 runs scored.

Carnott and Ethan Kirby, who hit .281 led the team with 29 RBIs apiece.

Luke Hill was at .280 and was second on the team with 38 runs scored.

Roby was also a terror on the mound.

He threw the shutout against Wister and for the season was 6-1 with a 1.16 earned run average.

He struck out 51 batters and walked just 15.

Carnott was 7-0 for the season and had a 2.04 ERA.

Nobody on Okarche’s staff had an ERA above 2.90.

The most Okarche gave up in a game this season was seven runs, which happened twice, and once in extra innings.

In the team’s 31 games, it gave up two or fewer runs 21 times.

But, for the most part, it was still the same team that got beat out in the 2022 fall district tournament.

What caused the turnaround?

Maturity was a factor.

Okarche has 22 players on its current roster.

That includes one senior and one junior.

The largest batch - 13 are sophomores, meaning they were freshmen getting their first dose of varsity action a year earlier.

“Just growing up is a big part of it,” Beaman said. “That extra time makes a difference for the kids as they start to grow up, mature and get stronger.” They were also hungry.

The spring win over Dewar had the Warriors sniffing the state tournament. Then it was yanked away from them.

“Getting to that point and being so close just gave them that fire within,” Beaman said. “It had them really wanting that success.”

So they continued to work, which is something they’re not allergic to, Beaman said.

“It’s a good group of kids that like to work hard,” Beaman said. “They came out in July and were ready to put their nose to the grindstone.”

And there’s coaching. Rob Friesen had a vision for Okarche’s baseball program when he was superintendent.

He saw something in Beaman five years ago.

“He was excited to be put in that spot and I’m tickled to death he’s succeeding,” said Friesen, now the superintendent at Thomas-Fay-Custer.

Chris Roby, whom Friesen hired as the elementary principal, was also someone Friesen had a lot of trust in to be on the coaching staff.

“He’s very knowledgeable and he doesn’t tolerate nonsense,” Friesen said.

Then last year, Beaman brought on Matt Yost.

“He’s a tremendous asset,” Beaman said of Yost. “We go way back. I got to coach with him at Yukon and being able to bring him over and be a part of this program has been huge.

“He’s a great hitting guy and we bounce a lot of ideas off each other.”

That included mixing things up.

After losing 1-0 to Dale in extra innings on Sept. 12, they made some changes with their batting practice.

“We started trying to put them in more game-like situations with our BP,” Beaman said. “We put more emphasis on things like that and we feel like that helped.”

Talent, work ethic, hunger, coaching.

All that has Okarche primed to be among the contenders in Class A baseball for at least the next few years.

Okarche has a run like that in its history.

The Warriors made the spring state tournament five straight years from 2008-12 and was also in the fall state tournament in 2009 and 2010.

They played for a state title in three consecutive seasons: Spring 2010, Fall 2010 and Spring 2011.

This fall season offered hope for similar success and people like Friesen will be watching.

“I’m super happy for everyone there,” he said. “I look forward to watching those guys for the next few years....but not going against them.”