When Carlos Lopez thinks back on the start of the 2024 regular season, two words immediately come to the senior lefty’s mind.
“Perseverance and toughness,” he said after signing his letter of intent to play for Northern Oklahoma College in Enid starting next year. Lopez was one of 16 athletes, including seven baseball players, to sign LOIs on April 17 at the MHS Event Center.
The Broncos, who started the season 1-7, closed out district play on Tuesday by completing a sweep of Putnam City North for fourth place in 6A-2.
The victory marked their 21st win out of the last 26 games since dropping seven straight losses from March 2-12. It was eight straight before a loss to Yukon on March 14 was reversed to a forfeit.
“In baseball you can’t really stress things because it’s a game of failure,” Lopez said of the team’s mindset during the first two weeks of the season.
“There wasn’t any magic speech or anything to get us going. We were getting these talks after each game, but it was still: lose, wake up, lose, wake up, lose, wake up, lose gain. But we kept after it and started winning and here we are. I think it says a lot.”
Lopez struck out nine Panthers over six innings on Tuesday, allowing just one earned run and a walk in a 6-2 win. The Broncos scored four runs on a handful of PC North errors in the first two frames and never looked back.
Wyatt Williamson (So.) celebrates after a hit during a game earlier this season at the Mustang Baseball Complex. Williamson and the Broncos won 21 of their final 26 games to end the 2024 regular season. (Photo by Ron Lane / Lane Images)
Blaine Fulmer (Sr.), Maddox Lawson (Sr.), Wyatt Williamson (So.), Kamden Mantooth (So.), and Nate Sutton (So.) all recorded hits. Fulmer closed the game out on the mound, retiring the side in order.
Jackson Pickelsimer (Sr.), who earned a shutout victory in Game 1 of the series, recorded two RBI and one run on Tuesday. He struck out eight batters in a 10-0 win on Monday.
Williamson finished with two hits, including a double, in the shutout victory. Fulmer and Pickelsimer also tallied extra-base knocks.
BOUNCING BACK
Mustang (22-12) rebounded from their early season struggles with seven straight wins to close the month of March, highlighted by a 14-12 win over Class 5A power Carl Albert on March 28.
The team has rolled off 12 wins in its last 14 games following a midseason skid where the Broncos lost three of four games to Edmond Memorial and Deer Creek. Coach Joe Patterson’s squad now has plenty of momentum heading into postseason play.
“We tasted our own blood,” said senior Jake Blice, who tripled against PC North on Monday.
“But I feel like even when we were struggling, guys were having fun playing the game. We’re a tight group and we knew eventually we would put it together. And now it’s fun, having that expectation that we’re going to go out there and do what we’ve been doing over the past 26 games.”
Jake Blice (Sr.) swings at a pitch during a game earlier this season at the Mustang Baseball Complex. Blice and the Broncos swept Putnam City North in their final district games of the 2024 campaign. (Photo by Ron Lane / Lane Images)
Blice is signed to play baseball and football at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark.
All seven of the team’s losses in early March came against teams that finished in the top three of their districts, including district champions Edmond Santa Fe, Choctaw (twice), and Duncan (5A-2).
There is a chance the Broncos will see action against those teams in the postseason, which wouldn’t be a problem for Lopez and his teammates.
“We faced all of that adversity, which is only going to help us in the playoffs,” Lopez said. “If we could come back from that, we can come back from anything.”
