Kisner drives home winning run in the seventh to down Ponca City

Coming off a disappointing outing on Thursday, the Guthrie High School baseball team came out on Friday with timely hitting, spot-on defense and consistency on the mound resulting in a road win over Class 6A Ponca City.

Tyler Kisner drove in the winning run to give the Bluejays their final lead in the top of the seventh inning, as Guthrie hung on to beat Ponca City 3-2. The Jays improve to 3-1 overall while Ponca City drops their third straight game and is 1-3.

In a tied 2-2 game, pinch-hitter Rigo Martinez and Zac Payne each drew a one-out walk in the seventh. Jeremiah Blackmon hit in a fielder’s choice advancing Martinez to third base when Kisner delivered the clutch hit.

Guthrie scored their first run in the third when Zane Maltz lifted a sacrifice fly to centerfield to score Mason Chavez, who started the inning with a leadoff walk and moved over to second base on a sacrifice bunt from Payne. Jays lead 1-0.

The Jays were back on the scoreboard in the following inning. Evan Kowalski started things off with his second double in the game. Rigo Martinez, serving as a courtesy runner for Kowalski, scored to make it a 2-0 game when Jays catcher Dalton Graybeal came through with his first base hit and second run batted in of the year.

Both Kisner and Kowalski finished the game with two hits each.

Ponca City tied the game 2-2 in their half of the fourth inning with three of their of their six hits in the game. The Wildcats threaten once more in the sixth inning, but Maltz, in pitching relief of Kowalski, delivered back-to-back strikeouts with two baserunners on.

Maltz (2-0) picked up the five-out win, but Kowalski proved to be worthy by tossing 5 1/3 innings and striking out four Wildcats.

The Jays will next be in action on Wednesday when they play Chandler’s junior varsity team in the Chandler Tournament at 1 p.m.