Armed and dangerous

By Mike Kays
Phoenix Sports Editor

May 08, 2008 11:20 pm

— Oktaha coach Chris Burt hasn't had to stress much over his pitching staff this season. At 28-1 and riding a 22-game win streak, life has pretty much been a picnic in all aspects of his baseball life.
But he still thinks that pitching will be the ultimate determining factor when his second-ranked team begins play in the Class 2A state tournament with a 7:30 p.m. quarterfinal game against No. 9 Drumright (26-6) tonight at Dolese Park in Oklahoma City.
“Generally that first game is where everyone throws their ace, and you'll see the semifinal scores go up a bit because the No. 2 guys aren't always as solid as the No. 1s,” Burt said. “Then if you make the finals, it comes back to whether your No. 1 can go on a day's rest. We're pretty fortunate in that we've got several kids who can be plugged in.”
Therein lies the biggest stressor for Burt. Who's his ace?
Right-handers Cale Elam and Derek Ellison carry earned-run averages under 1. Ellison's the only Tiger saddled with a loss, a 3-2 loss to Keys — a Class 3A state entry — back on March 21 where all three of the senior's runs were unearned. He is 7-1 with an 0.80 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 52 2/3 innings of work. Elam, a sophomore, is 7-0 with an 0.95 ERA and 68 Ks in 44 1/3 innings.
And if Burt is forced to go deeper into his rotation, he has to resort to a pair of guys with ERAs under two: senior Brandon Vogt (5-0, 1.80) and freshman Cameron Proctor (6-0, 1.41). Vogt got a no-hitter earlier this season even though he allowed a run. Proctor, who got an OSSAA transfer to move from Midway where baseball wasn't offered, threw the shutout in the regional-clinching 10-0 victory over Watonga.
Every coach should be so burdened.
With guys like this, who needs offense — even though the Tigers have that, too. They've scored 10 or more runs in 12 games, including all three games in the regional tournament last weekend.
“We thought our pitching would be pretty strong. The offense, it just kind of like took off at one point this spring and has been in a groove ever since,” Elam said. “It obviously makes it easier on whoever is pitching because you don't have to worry about one bad pitch putting you in a hole. Mentally, it's a big advantage.”
But that doesn't mean Oktaha can't compete in the close ones — even if in the end, they're not close.
“We've had a pretty tough schedule but we saw the Bethel Tournament (in late April) as a big test with teams we figured to see at state, and we approached those games from the standpoint that one pitch could matter,” Elam said.
Elam threw in that tournament's championship game against the host team, then ranked where Oktaha currently is in the Okrankings.com listings. No. 2 Bethel went down 8-0 as Elam allowed just one hit.
Ellison, on the other hand, has had his tests. He blanked Eufaula, another 3A state entry, 5-0 on March 25.
“Cale and I in particular are really similar for sure,” Ellison said. “We compare notes. Cale even taught me a cut-fastball he learned from the coach at Eufaula (Stacy Helms) and it's my best pitch now.
“Overall, we're a really solid staff.”
Ellison, Elam and Vogt all play other sports — they all played on the state semifinalist basketball team and Elam played golf at the state tournament Monday and Tuesday. Proctor hasn't yet had enough time at Oktaha to play anything else.
Burt's fine with sharing the talent pool.
“You have to share kids at a small school because there's not enough to go around,” Burt said. “The kids don't get the weight-room work and that probably hurts them a little bit in terms of how good they could be in any one sport, but they're still good athletes in anything they play.
“You know they've got the potential to develop and be better because they aren't as strong as they could be if they had the time. And even in the summer, they're off to summer leagues as far away as Georgia. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, they're all playing something.”
Stats, even the slightest of differences as evidenced by their ERAs, count for something. Translation: either Ellison or Elam will draw the start tonight. Narrowing it down, Burt said it will probably boil down to a game-time decision as to who gets the nod.
“They're both right-handers, they both have very effective breaking balls, and they both have been clocked at 86, 87 mph on their fastballs,” he said.
“We'll talk about it, and we'll probably see once we get down there how both of them feel and then go from there.You want to put the best you've got out there and it'll take the little things to make that determination because there's not much that distinguishes them.”

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