Optimist Day Photos Courtesy of Charla Shults
Senior Day Photo Courtesy of Carter Pirtle
The Pampa Harvesters (4-10, 11-15) traveled to Canyon on Tuesday night and hosted West Plains on Friday night to complete the 2026 season. Friday’s game was also Optimist Night where the young future Harvesters got to run out on the field during player introductions with the varsity team.
“It’s fun for the kids coming out. I remember growing up in Oklahoma City we had something similar except it was for the AAA Red Hawks. I remember running out on their field for the National Anthem and that was one of the coolest things ever. Optimist Day has been a thing forever. The kids love going out there and the high school kids love taking little kids onto the field because it’s something they did when they were little, too. It’s a great way to get community involvement, a great way to get people to the ball park and a great way to get people excited for baseball,” Head Coach Austin Samulowitz said.
West Plains Game
Pampa’s last game of the season would turn out to be a thriller against a top-15 ranked West Plains team. The Wolves had a single to begin the game before the runner was gunned down stealing second by Freshman Phoenix Lopez. The inning ended on a fly ball to Senior Max Neff.
Neff turned around and singled on a line drive to center to begin the bottom of the first for the Harvesters. Lopez reached on a groundball error by the third baseman. Senior Jack Dyer also reached on an error during his bunt attempt which scored Neff for the game’s first run. Senior Clayton Rogers did his job with a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners. Senior Jaime Soto smashed a single on a line drive to right to score two runs with courtesy runner Junior Cy LeBlanc and Dyer coming home to score and Pampa led 3-0 after the first inning.
West Plains tied the game up in the second inning but the threat for more runs was ended with another runner being caught stealing by Lopez and back-to-back strikeouts from Senior Greyson Paronto. Freshman Austin Hunt began the bottom of the second with a single on a line drive to left. Senior Tristan Bagwell walked. Senior Boston Botello had a good sacrifice bunt but the inning ended without Pampa adding more runs and they led 3-1 after two.
The first batter for the Wolves in the third hit a triple to center. However, three straight ground outs gave West Plains just one more run on the board.
Rogers hit a single on a hard grounder to third with one out in the third before a double play ended the Pampa threat. Pampa led 3-2 after three.
West Plains added one more run to tie the game in the fourth before a live drive went right to Hunt and he made a diving catch to end the threat. Senior Conner Hall started off the bottom of the fourth with a single on a hard grounder to center. The inning ended on a questionable double play ball in which Bagwell popped up for an infield fly and the fielder purposely dropped the ball to get two outs. The game stayed tied at three after four complete.
West Plains began the fifth with a single to left. Once again, good defense by the Harvesters ended the threat with three straight ground outs.
Pampa could not get anything going in their half of the fifth and the score stayed tied.
With two outs in the sixth, the Wolves started to get momentum. They had a single and a walk and a single to take a 5-3 lead. This forced a Pampa pitching change and Junior Gage Gamblin came in and recorded the final out of the inning via strikeout.
Rogers doubled on a line drive to center to begin the sixth. Soto smashed a homerun over the left field wall to score himself and Rogers while tying the game at five all. Hall reached on an error but Pampa could not get anything else going and it was 5-5 heading into the seventh, and final frame.
Gamblin got a strikeout to begin the seventh. The next batter popped up to Rogers. The last batter of the inning grounded out on a ball to Austin Hunt who tossed to Tristan Bagwell. Pampa would have a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the seventh. Unfortunately for Pampa, they went down in 1-2-3 order and the game was heading to extra innings with the score still tied 5-5. The dramatics continued, however, as during Dyer’s at-bat he smashed a ball about two feet foul that would have been a walk-off homerun had it stayed fair.
West Plains had a pop out to Dyer to begin the inning. The next batter was struck out by Gamblin. The last batter of the inning grounded out on a grounder from Hall to Bagwell. Pampa would have another chance to walk it off in the eighth.
Rogers flew out to left to begin the inning. Soto grounded out to third. Hall struck out and the game was headed to the ninth inning still tied at five apiece.
Pampa started to run out of gas in the ninth with a walk, an error, and another walk to load the bases. A sacrifice fly gave the Wolves a 6-5 lead. Another fly out scored a second run and they led 7-5. A single scored another run to make it 8-5 before the inning ended on the basepaths.
Pampa went down in 1-2-3 order and the 2026 season would come to a close despite the strong efforts for a good memory win.
Final Score/9: West Plains 8, Pampa 5.
“It was a fun game. We got up 3-0 early against one of the best pitchers in the District. They slowly climbed their way back to 3-3 going into the sixth inning. They go up 5-3. We put (Junior) Gage Gamblin in and he pitched two shutout innings and Jaime Soto hit a two-run home run to tie it up in the sixth. We go two scoreless innings, they go up 8-5 and sealed it up. We played a really clean game and (Senior Greyson) Paronto pitched really well. Gamblin pitched well. We only had one error. I told the guys if we played like that every game, we would have a chance to win really well. It was a great way for them to finish out their high school career,” Samulowitz said.
Stat Recap:
Neff had one hit. Dyer scored one run. Rogers was 2-3 with a run scored. Soto was 2-4 with a homerun, four RBIs, and a run scored. Hall had one hit and a walk. Hunt had one hit. Bagwell walked once. LeBlanc scored a run as a courtesy runner. Paronto pitched five and two-thirds innings while striking out two batters. Gamblin pitched two and one-third innings and struck out three batters. He was tagged with the loss. Hunt pitched the final inning and allowed just one hit.
Canyon Game
Pampa was unable in the first inning despite a hard hit fly ball to right by Senior Boston Botello. After an error and a single, Soto got the Eagles out before any runs came across in the bottom of the first. Neff tossed to fellow Senior Hall to get a runner out at second base for the first out. Hunt caught a pop up for the second out. Botello recorded the third out on a fly ball.
The Harvesters saw Dyer reach via the walk to begin the second. However, they could not get any runs across from it.
The Eagles scored the first run of the game in the second but Pampa’s defense was able to hold them to just the one run. That was thanks in large part due to a ground ball which Dyer fielded and tossed home to Lopez to tag the lead runner out at the plate.
Hunt hit a line drive single to center to begin the third on the first pitch he saw. LeBlanc laid down a great sacrifice bunt to advance Hunt to second. Neff then hit a hard grounder to right to score Hunt and the score was knotted at one apiece.
Canyon broke things open in their half of the third beginning with a leadoff triple off the right field wall. They scored three runs in the inning to take a 4-1 lead.
Pampa went down in order in the fourth. Canyon added one more run in their half of the fourth.
LeBlanc had a two-out single in the fifth but that was the only hit in the inning for Pampa. Canyon added two more in their half of the fifth to lead 7-1.
Lopez hit a one out single on a grounder to third in the sixth before the final two outs were quickly retired. Canyon had two guys walk to begin the sixth before a big double play where Hunt made a nice stop and tossed it to Hall at second who then tossed it to Soto at first to get a big two outs. Freshman Cruise Godino was on the bump in the inning. There were a couple more walks before a flyout to Botello ended the frame.
Pampa went down in 1-2-3 order in their half of the seventh and that was the ball game.
Final Score: Canyon 7, Pampa 1.
“(Junior) Jaime Soto came out and pitched well. Canyon is just a well-rounded baseball team. They hit it well and they pitch it well. We came out and played well early and executed our pitches. But they did a better job of putting the ball in play on two strikes. They were dinking and dunking and slowly added runs. We just couldn’t keep up. But I’m proud of how we played,” Samulowitz said.
Stat Recap:
Jaime Soto pitched five innings and recorded a strikeout. Cruise Godino pitched the final frame. Cy LeBlanc, Junior Eryk Ballew, and Max Neff all had stolen bases. Neff, Lopez, Hunt, and LeBlanc recorded the only hits for Pampa. Neff had the lone RBI. Dyer had the lone walk. Hunt had the lone run.
This concludes the 2026 season for the Pampa Harvesters. It was the fifth season led by Head Coach Austin Samulowitz. We wish the best of luck to the seniors in their future endeavors. They are Jack Dyer, Boston Botello, Tristan Bagwell, Conner Hall, Max Neff, Clayton Rogers, and Greyson Paronto.
“They were my second group being the head baseball coach. Those guys played a lot of baseball for me. It’s hard to see them go, but they were good for the program. Winning the trophy for them last year was great. They’ve had a rough high school career in their sports. Being able to win one as upperclassmen is super-important,” Samulowitz said. “Some good highlights include playing at Hodgetown with this group of seniors was awesome. This group of seniors has never lost to Borger, that’s something to hang your hat on as a Pampa kid. They beat West Plains their freshman year. They were a great group, a competitive group. I wish we could have won more for them but unfortunately we had to play some young guys with them this year, but that’s how things go sometimes.”
