JENKS - Playing the Men's Division 1 Region 2 Baseball Tournament at Hinch Field on the campus of Jenks High School has a hidden meaning for the No. 3 seed Northeastern A&M Golden Norsemen.


Coach Roger Ward's Golden Norse have spent the entire season 'battling" some sort of jinx or another.
First, was the loss of 10 games scattered throughout the year to bad weather. Second, was the availability of two sophomore starting pitchers, Travis Remillard (6-1 from Norman) and all-American  Keaton Hernandez (6-1 from Palm Desert, Calif.), to season-ending injuries the second week. Third, the loss of freshman lead-off hitter Alex Wise (6-1 from Neosho, Mo.) for 16 games late in the season due to injury.
The end result for the defending Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference champions was a third place finish in the league with a 12-8 record and a 30-15 overall mark.
"It was a tough season," Ward said. "Guys could have easily lost heart because of all the uncontrollable things that happened.
"We hit the valley when we lost four straight to Rose State on April 18-20," Ward said. "You try to stay positive and say we can use the loss of these key players as excuses, or we can just battle through this and see where it takes us."
Ironically, the Golden Norsemen enter Thursday's first game of the Region 2 Tournament at noon against the No. 4 seed Raiders of Rose State College. The Raiders are 8-12 in the OCAC and 28-23 overall.
"For a little while you live on adrenaline and then you realize whoa, I'm playing every day now and I've got to prepare every day to be the guy that helps us win," Ward said. "There's naturally going to be a lull in the season, but along with the bad weather, bad luck and injuries, we really thought it would occur sooner."
After the losses against Rose State, the Norsemen closed out the regular season winning seven of nine games, including six straight.
"Not to take anything away from Rose because they are a good baseball team," Ward said. "When we played, they hit the ball in the hole, they made pitches and they got the calls. It was just like our baseball luck disappeared for a while.
"We are really hitting our mid-season tempo now," Ward said. "Obviously, in the four-game sweep over Eastern to end the regular season we swung the bats extraordinarily well."
Other first-round games on Thursday in the double-elimination tournament pit No. 2 seed Seminole State College (13-7 and 36-16) against No. 5 seed Eastern (7-13 and 24-28) at 3:30 p.m. followed by No. 1 seed Connors State College (15-5 and 45-9) versus No. 6 seed Arkansas Baptist College of Little Rock (5-15 and 27-29) at 7 p.m.
The Connors=Arkansas Baptist loser faces the Seminole-Eastern loser in an elimination game at noon Friday followed by the NEO-Rose State winner against the Seminole-Eastern winner at 3:30 p.m. The Connors-Arkansas Baptist winner squares off against the NEO-Rose loser at 7 p.m. Friday.
Ward and pitching coach Jamie Williams have a decision to make in terms of who will take the bump for NEO against Rose State.
"Right now our choices are between sophomore Ricky Rivera and freshman Michael Fusselman," Ward said. "There are several factors that have to be considered and perhaps the biggest one is, who can come back on two days rest and pitch on Sunday?."
Rivera (6-2 from Dorado, Puerto Rico) earned the Region 2 Gold Glove award after posting a 4-4 record and a 3.80 earned run average in 66.2 innings.
Fusselman (6-2 from Melissa, Texas) is 5-2 with a 3.06 ERA in 53 innings of work.