NORMAN – It’s been exactly thirty years since Bixby’s last appearance in a state baseball tournament but they ended the drought by beating top-ranked and heavily-favored Chickasha 4-1 Tuesday to win the 5A state championship.

The Chicks, in their third straight trip to state and their second straight championship game appearance, were frustrated again. They never could get anything going against sophomore right-hander Jon Furlong, who notched his 10th win of the season while holding them to five scattered singles.

Bixby’s ace shut them out until the bottom of the sixth, when Kennedy Winn singled and later scored from third on a wild pitch that went to the fence, Furlong’s only gaff of the game. The youngster struck out eight and made the powerful Chicks hit his pitches all night for the biggest win of his career.

The Spartans, who run-ruled second-ranked Kelley Saturday to win their bracket, proved it wasn’t a fluke. They hit the ball hard, even on the outs.

DH Ricky Grinstead got it going in the second, ripping a one-out triple to the right field corner and scoring on a wild pitch. A two-out walk to Ryan Williams and back-to-back singles by Kevin Lamb and Jake Inbody made it 2-0 in the fifth.

A dropped third strike and a throwing error by catcher Blake Taylor put Kyle Bayles on third with one out in the Spartan sixth. He scored on a wild-pitch ball four to Tyler Jeffers, who later scored on Williams’ double to the left-field corner.

After walking Jeffers, Winn went to 2-0 on Ben Lenski and Chick coach Brad Gore made the switch, bringing on Bill Hartis in relief. Hartis walked Lenski before getting tagged by Williams for the RBI double but held Bixby in the seventh.

The night ended badly for Chickasha, who closed out their season with an incredible 38-5 record. Winn struck out nine on his shift but gave up six hits as he took the loss. Winn, Hartis, Chance Sneed, Braden Cook and Tylor Lee each singled for the Chicks’ offensive output.

“We came up one game short again but those guys got hot and just outplayed us tonight,” Gore said after the post-game ceremonies. “I can’t say enough about the effort our kids have given us all year, though. It’s just hard to swallow right now but I’m really, really proud of them.”

The ball game ended up being played at the University of Oklahoma’s L. Dale Mitchell Park after torrential rain delayed the scheduled 6:30 p.m. start at Shawnee’s Ed Skelton Field for over an hour and made the field unplayable. Owasso and Moore were already duking it out in Norman for the 6A championship and OSSAA officials and the coaches agreed to move the 5A game in behind them instead of trying to re-schedule again.