If you want to find what is perhaps the best in-season high school baseball tournament in the Sooner State, you don’t need to look any further than Dale, America this coming weekend (August 10-12). Dale High School is hosting its annual fall tournament and this year’s edition is STACKED.

The tournament is comprised of 10 of the top small school teams from across the state in a double elimination bracket that starts at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. Those teams are the host team Dale, then Ft Cobb-Broxton, Roff, Rattan, Amber-Pocasset, Byng, Oktaha, Canute, Tushka, and Latta.

To show how stacked this tournament is here are some numbers:

• A total of 16 state tournament appearances in the 2022-2023 school year between the 10 schools
• A total of 4 state champions in the 2022-2023 school year
• A total of 3 state runners up in the 2022-2023 school year
• A combined record of 481-166 between the 10 teams in the 2022-2023 school year

Here are the individual team results for 2022-2023

• Ft Cobb-Broxton – Fall 30-4 (Class B State Champ); Spring 31-4 (Class B State Champ)
• Rattan – Fall 23-5 (Class A State Tournament); Spring: 26-6 (Class A State Champ)
• AmPo – Fall 31-9 (Class A State Tournament); Spring 26-9 (Class 2A State Finalist)
• Dale – Fall 24-10 (Class A State Champ); Spring 19-9 (Class 2A State Tournament)
• Roff – Fall 32-1 (Class B State Finalist); Spring 27-7 (Class B State Finalist)
• Byng – Fall 19-12 (Class A State Tournament); Spring 14-10 (Class 4A)
• Oktaha – Fall 25-11 (Class A State Tournament); Spring 26-6 (Class 2A State Tournament)
• Canute – Fall 29-8 (Class A State Tournament); Spring 23-7 (Class A State Tournament)
• Tushka – Fall 18-10 (Class A); Spring 22-10 (Class A State Tournament)
• Latta – Fall 15-16 (Class A); Spring 21-12 (Class 2A)

---

Bracket

Breaking Down The Bracket

The top half of the bracket jumps out. It has 4 state champs from last school year: Ft Cobb-Broxton (2X), Rattan, and Dale. It also has 3 state runners up: Roff (2X to FCB), and AmPo. Any way this goes, the team that comes out of the top half to play in the finals will definitely have earned it. What is interesting is that FCB and Roff could play in the semifinals. Those 2 teams played each other in both the Fall and Spring State finals last year.

The bottom half shouldn’t be overlooked. Four of the five teams played in a state tournament last year: Byng, Oktaha (2X), Canute (2X), and Tushka. Latta struggled last fall, but put together a solid Spring season (21-12) and forced an “if game” against AmPo in a 2A regional.

It’d be tough to predict who the winning team would be. Let alone the level of teams in the tournament is tough, but if one would want to pick Rattan, AmPo, Canute, or Tushka, those teams would have to win 4 games as opposed to 3 for the other 6 teams in the tournament. Would those 4 teams have the pitching in the championship game if they got that far?

SSBR is not in the business of predicting winners at the high school level, but one would have to look long and hard at Oktaha. They return 6 starters from the lineup last year and have a top player that moved in. The Tigers looked good in a scrimmage against Ft Cobb-Broxton on Saturday and handed Wright City a 11-1 loss in their opener on Monday.

---

Results

Thursday’s Games

• 10:00 a.m.: Byng 2 Oktaha 12
• Noon: Dale 11 Roff 2
• 2:00 p.m.: Rattan 2 AmPo 3
• 4:00 p.m.: FCB 3 AmPo 2
• 6:00 p.m.: Canute 1 Tushka 3
• 8:00 p.m.: Latta 3 Tushka 1

Friday’s Games

• 10:00 a.m. Rattan 20 Roff 1
• Noon: Rattan 9 Tushka 2
• 2:00 p.m.: Canute Byng
• 4:00 p.m. AmPo Byng
• 6:00 p.m. Oktaha Latta
• 8:00 p.m.: FCB Dale

Saturday’s Games

• Noon: (5th Place) Rattan AmPo
• 2:00 p.m.: FCB 10 Latta 8
• 4:00 p.m.: Oktaha 10 Dale 6