slideshow

For the first time in 18 years, the Olustee Eagles will play in the State Baseball Tournament.

Coach Eagle Fixico’s crew defeated Dover 8-3 on Saturday in the Class B regional loser’s bracket final to reach the state tourney.

Olustee opened the regional Friday at Lookeba-Sickles home field with loss to Dover. The Eagles battled back through the loser’s bracket. The tournament had to be moved to Dover on Saturday because of rain and on that day Olustee defeated Verden and Dover by the identical scores of 8-3.

Paco Reyes, Taylor Abila and Christian Fixico carried the big sticks in the game. Reyes hit a 400 foot bomb in the second inning to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Taylor Abila had two run homer and Fixico drove home a pair of runs with a double.

Dylan Sanchez went the distance striking out five batters and allowing only one hit. He did struggle with control walking four and hitting three batters.

“They were a determined bunch,” Fixico said. “I didn’t have to do much. They took care of business.”

Fixico has coached most of the players since t-ball and they certainly had their eyes on playing in the state tournament for a long time.

“This has been a goal since junior high,” Fixico said. “The cool thing about this is that Taylor’s, Dylan’s, Justice’s (Fixico) Jordan’s (Fixico), Christian’s (Fixico), Kenneth’s (Everhart) and Paco’s dads all played in the state tournament. Eagle Fixico played in the state tournament when he was at Navajo.”

The brackets to the state tournament have not been released because Saturday’s rains forced postponement of two regional until Monday. Those pairings were to be released by 2 p.m. this afternoon.

Olustee, Lookeba-Sickles, Sentinel, Leedey, Asher and Red Oak have all qualified.

The tournament will be played at the Edmond Memorial High School field. The games will begin at 11 a.m.

The baseball field is not located at Edmond Memorial High School, but at 1001 S. Rankin Street in Edmond. It is west of the Edmond Memorial Campus which is located at 1000 E. 15th Street in Edmond. From Broadway Extension exit east on 15th street in Edmond. Go east on 15th to Rankin. Turn north and proceed to 1001 S. Rankin Street. The parking lot of First Presbyterian Church is available for parking.