TULSA – Top-ranked and top-seeded Chickasha is one win away from their second consecutive state final after beating No. 3 McAlester 3-1 on Saturday.

Chick senior Kennedy Winn (9-1 coming in) and Buff senior Tony Trevino (9-2 coming in) squared off in a critical winners’ bracket final and Winn came out on top with a dazzling four-hitter.

The Buffs have had Chickasha’s number since Brad Gore took over four years ago, but his Chicks won the biggest matchup of their history behind a dominating performance from Winn.

Kennedy did a great job for us,” Gore said after the game. “When you get that kind of pitching it sure makes it nice.

“I don’t know if our kids even realized it, but we haven’t beaten them since I got here. It sure feels good to get that monkey off our backs.”

Winn scattered four hits and allowed just one unearned run when he overthrew first baseman Bill Hartis on a pickoff attempt in the fourth. The ball sailed and speedy Justin Klusak, who had just singled to lead off the inning, ended up on third. Chickasha had no other option but to trade an out for a run on Gio Lovero’s ground ball to short.

The run cut the Chicks’ lead in half. Trevino struck out the side in the first but Winn led off the second with a missile to left-center that bounced off the top of the wall for a stand-up double. Hartis laid down a sacrifice bunt to move courtesy runner Korey Keef over to third and Keef tagged up and scored on Chance Sneed’s line drive to right.

Tylor Lee’s one-out single in the home third led to the second run when he scored on Jake Jobe’s rip to right and Heath Wilda’s solo homerun to left-center in the fifth spotted Chickasha an insurance run that they ended up not needing.

Wilda’s blast and a deep flyout to center by Hartis to end the fifth ended Trevino’s day. Side-armer Matt Mason threw the sixth, gave up a one-out single to Josh Gresham and left him stuck out there. A looking strikeout, a single and two assists by Wilda on ground balls closed the books on the Buffs in the seventh.

Winn was still overpowering the McAlester hitters in the sixth and seventh innings. They couldn’t catch up to his heater all game and when they did, he got some help from a fired-up and very sharp defense. Hartis tracked down a deep foul ball, grabbing it at the fence to end the first with runners in scoring position, and second baseman Braden Cook turned a rocket by Trevino into a bang-bang 4-6-3 double play to end the third.

Wilda closed out the fourth with a steal of his own, hauling in Josh Yate’s hard-hopper behind second base and snapping a throw on a dead run to a stretched-out Hartis.

“What a great ball game,” Gore said. “I’m really proud of these guys. We competed hard and we got some clutch hits to give us some space.

“Trevino’s really good. He struck out the side in the first inning but the guys stayed with what we’ve been talking about all year. They looked for their pitches and got the hits when we needed them.”

The same two teams will play for the Bracket A ticket to the state championship game today. McAlester eliminated Deer Creek 7-4 in Satureday’s late game to set up a rematch with Chickasha, but, with the double-elimination format, they will have to beat them twice.

With Bixby and Kelley meeting Monday in Bracket B, the only thing we know for sure about the championship game is that it will be played in the Tulsa area on Tuesday.