Junior Rockets Notch First Win in Regional

Better late than never for the Okawville Junior Rocket baseball team which recorded its first win of the season with a 15-9 opening round regional victory over Lebanon.

Okawville jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning when Ayden Foley, Landen Shubert, and Caleb Hagarty all hit safely and scored.  

The Junior Rockets pushed the lead to 4-0 before falling behind 8-5 heading into the sixth inning.  In that frame, Lebanon pitchers walked eight batters, and Okawville took advantage with nine runs to take a 14-9 lead.

Braylen Turner pitched 3 1/3 innings before giving way to Kaden Buehler, who hurled the remainder of the game to record the victory.

Okawville had seven hits.  Turner, Shubert, and Hagarty all had two hits each while Buehler and Foley both had one.

The win over Lebanon put the Junior. Rockets into the semifinal round, where they ended up on the wrong end of an 11-0 score against Nashville.

Hagarty started for Okawville and got relief help from both Shubert and Foley.  Okawville could not scratch out a hit against a hard throwing right hander from Nashville.

“We only had two eighth graders and started four sixth graders, but they fought hard all year and showed improvement in many areas of the game,” said coach Rick Gaebe. “They had lots of fun on the diamond and should be better next year with ten of the 12 players returning.”

The Junior Rockets finished the season with a 1-13 record.