ENID —



One stat stands out to Enid baseball coach James Peoples as his team prepares to host the Gladys Winters Memorial Tournament beginning today at David Allen Memorial Ballpark.

Plainsmen pitchers have walked 32 batters in a 3-4 start while striking out 24.

“Our starting pitchers need to throw strikes and give us a chance,’’ Peoples said. “We haven’t had a lot of that in the last few outings.’’

Staff ace Mike Phillips has a good strikeout-to-walk ratio (11-3). Take him away and it’s 29 walks to 13 strikeouts.

Christian Lafontan, Enid’s No. 2 starter, has walked 13 while striking out four.

“Hopefully, he has that worked out and he’ll get some confidence and throw a lot of strikes for us,’’ Peoples said. “We need to get at least five innings out of our starters.’’

Enid will need the starters to go late in games with four games in four days, weather permitting.

Phillips (1-1, 1.75 ERA) will pitch against Southmoore at 11:30 a.m today. The Plainsmen beat the Sabercats 7-3 March 6.

Mikey Bretado (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will pitch against No. 6 Yukon (7-0) at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Millers shut out Enid 4-0 March 13.

LaFontan (0-0, 5.80 ERA) will pitch against No. 11 Midwest City (5-2) at 7 p.m. Friday

Tanner Leon (1-1, 24.50 ERA) or Joe Phillips (1-0, 2.80 ERA) will pitch against No. 5 Edmond North (5-1) at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Nick Keeling (2-0, 1.50 ERA) has been effective in relief. His strong pitching, Peoples said, was a major factor in the Plainsmen rallying back from a 7-0 deficit in a 10-9 win over Childersburg, Ala., at the recent Oklahoma-Alabama Challenge.

Rounding out the field in the round robin tournament are No. 9 Tulsa Union (6-4) and No. 10 Putnam City North (4-2).

“We’re going to have some strong competition,’’ Peoples said.

Unlike past years, there will not be a championship game. Everyone but Enid will be playing five games.

A good week would allow the No. 18 Plainsmen to move up in the coaches rankings, which determine playoff brackets. Enid was 1-3 at the recent Oklahoma-Alabama Challenge. Two of those losses were 5-3 verdicts.

“The kids played hard every game there,’’ Peoples said. “Those 5-3 games could have gone our way just as easily if we had gotten a couple of breaks or a couple of calls had gone our way.’’

Peoples said the Plainsmen have the potential to go 3-1 or even 4-0 in the tournament this week..

“I think our kids will go out and play hard,’’ he said.

The Plainsmen are hitting only .267 as a team.

Enid is led by second baseman Colter LeGrant (.450, 1 RBI), shortstop Seth Floyd (.421, 4 RBI), first baseman Erick Ramirez (.400, 8 RBI) and third baseman Bretado (.375, 6 RBI).

“The last couple of games we haven’t swung the bats well,’’ Peoples said. “Hopefully, we’ll start seeing the ball better at home.’’

Rain is in the forecast today, Thursday and Saturday. Last year teams got in only one round in before a massive snowstorm hit.

“We can’t control Mother Nature,’’ Peoples said. “Hopefully, the rain will hold off.’’

Peoples said the team had a good time off the field at Alabama. He was thrown out of the game in a 5-3 loss to Theodore, Ala., March 16.

“Other than the bad calls, everybody had a good time,’’ Peoples said.

However, Peoples said he doesn’t expect to go back to Alabama next spring.

“I don’t want to go back there and deal with the umpires,’’ he said. “We’ll find another place.’’

The tournament is played in the memory of Gladys Winters, who was proclaimed as Enid’s No. 1 baseball fan before her death in 1999.

All of Enid’s tournament games can be heard on KCRC Radio (1390 AM)