Buffaloes hit 20 win mark in Coweta series

McAlester baseball achieved a goal over its final district games this week.

Going into the season the Buffaloes (Class-5A-4 20-15, 8-4) wanted to win 20 games and make the second seed in the district to host a regional tournament. After splitting a pair of games against Coweta (Class-5A-4 18-11, 9-3) this week, they accomplished one of those goals.

Now that all district games have been played, the district standings are set for the 2026 season. Bishop Kelley (Class-5A-4 22-6, 11-0) ran away with the district, taking first place. Coweta finished in second.

McAlester ends the year as the third seed and will travel in the regional tournament but despite that, they feel battle tested. The Buffaloes have played tough competition from around Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Arizona this year.

They’ve seen championship level matchups from the Best of the West tournament in Arizona, played against top-10 ranked teams in Oklahoma and battled with district rivals. Though they didn’t accomplish all they set out to do, they feel proud, coach Justin Mullins said.

“You want to set goals that are achievable but you also want to set goals you have to work, you don’t want them to be easy,” Mullins said. “A 20 win season for us, especially with the competition we played, kudos to our kids to win 20 games with our schedule.”

On Monday, McAlester took care of business against the Tigers at home, winning 5-0. Denver Durant had another impressive pitching performance.

Durant had 11 strikeouts in seven innings pitched. He’s been a steady presence when McAlester has needed a big performance.

“Denver was phenomenal,” Mullins said. “He set the tone with everything that he does on the mound and makes it easy the rest of the way.”

But when the Buffaloes needed one more district win, they came up just short. Despite out hitting Coweta 13-5, McAlester lost 7-5.

The Buffaloes did what they needed to on offense but the Tigers scored all seven runs on just two hits. Mullins said allowing that to happen hurts the chances to win any game.

“Kudos to them (Coweta), I’ll tip my hat, we didn’t make quality pitches when we needed to,” Mullins said. “They earned everything they got, but when they score seven runs on two hits it’s not good, you’re not going to win very many games like that.”

McAlester plays next against Latta 5 p.m. Thursday at home.