Rhett Rutledge leads Sandites to run-rule victory over Bartlesville

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The Charles Page High School varsity baseball team (21-14) won their regular season finale with an 11-1 run-rule payback victory over Bartlesville (11-21). The Bruins had previously scored a pair of one-run upsets over the Sandites earlier this month while the Sand Springs team was in a bit of a slump.

The boys went 13-4 in March and at one point racked up a six-game win streak. This past month has been tougher for the Sandites, who won only eight of eighteen games and dropped five in a row before the Bartlesville win. The dry spell appears to be over for the Sandites, and just in time, as they nearly upset the top team in the district in a nail-bitter 11-10 loss to Owasso (24-6) on Monday and notched a significant moral victory in the Bartlesville win, setting themselves up well in district standings at fourth.

Rhett Rutledge (2-1) got it done on the mound and at the plate, pitching all six innings for the win, giving up only three hits and six walks against three strikeouts. He picked up two runs and batted in two runners on two singles. 

Bartlesville took the initial lead in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by Trevor Doyle to score Garrett Meidl, but it would be their only run of the game.

The Sandites tied it up quickly in the bottom of the first as Rutledge picked up his first run of the game on a sacrifice by Joey Montgomery.

The big go-ahead inning came in the bottom of the second as Senior Southwestern Christian University signee Trevor Tolbert singled in Hunter Greathouse, who doubled. Rutledge reached on an error to bring in Jake Ward and Tolbert, and Tyler McCallie scored on a passed ball for the 5-1 advantage.

In the third inning Greathouse was hit by pitch and advanced to third on a double by Ward before coming home on a throw. Ward scored on a sacrifice grounder by Tolbert to push the edge to 7-1.

In the sixth inning, Malachi Walton was hit by pitch, Tolbert reached on error, and Ty Fain singled to load the bases. Walton came home on a single by Rutledge, Tolbert and Fain both scored on a double by Josh Taber, and Rutledge scored the mercy-rule run on a sacrifice fly by Montgomery.

The Regional Tournament will be held sometime next week, with Regional assignments to be issued on Monday. Photo galleries from this season can be found at https://sanditepride.smugmug.com/2016-Baseball