North Nodaway’s baseball team, with two wins under their belt, had every reason to expect better in their second encounter against archrival West Nodaway after losing 14-2 the first time. But after battling gamely for three innings, the bottom dropped out from under them and they were no-hit by Rocket hurler Jacob Flint and fell 12-0 in five innings.
Mustang hurler Drexel Richardson threw slowly, but was able to throw his fastball and slow breaking ball for strikes to keep the Rocket batters off balance for a while. Lucas Alvarez had his best game in the field, making several catches, while second baseman Andrew Blackford made some good plays at second.
In the top of the first, Richardson froze Eli Sanders and David Hull with his big slow breaking pitch. Korbin Koch singled, but Cody Galyan grounded out to Tyler Bix at short to end the threat.
Karson Oberhauser was plunked by Flint’s first pitch to lead off the Mustang first. Lucas Alvarez and Tyler Bix grounded out to move them over, but Logan Keho struck out to end a rare Mustang threat.
Parker Ogle singled to left to start the Rocket second. Trace Hunt flied out to Lucas Alvarez in left, but an errant pickoff throw by Richardson put Ogle on second and he stole third. Jacob Flint hit a Texas Leaguer that dropped in between second and right for a base hit to score one. It would have been worse, but Dustin Riddle’s pop fly was caught by Andrew Blackford at second; he then doubled off Flint to limit the damage to one run.
After North Nodaway went in order in the second, Eli Sanders’ line drive with one out was fair past third for a double. Alvarez’s brilliant running catch of David Hull’s pop fly was the second out, but Korbin Koch’s single scored Sanders to make it 2-0. Once again, Alvarez limited the damage as he caught Cody Galyan’s drive to deep left field to end the inning.
But once again, North Nodaway came up empty at the plate in the third. Drexel Richardson’s grounder up the middle hit off the mound, but second baseman Parker Ogle got to it in time to throw him out and preserve Flint’s no-no. Another near-miss came with two outs when Karson Oberhauser’s screamer was right at Trace Hunt, who made a basket catch to preserve Flint’s no-hitter again.
The bottom dropped out in the fourth for Richardson. Tyler Bix was played by a hop off the bat of the speedy Parker Ogle and bobbled it; Ogle stole second and third. Trace Hunt chased a high pitch from Richardson but connected and put it in play, grounding out to Andrew Blackford at second to score Ogle. Richardson plunked Flint and walked Dustin Riddle on a close 3-2 pitch. Dylan Carden forced Riddle at second, leaving first and third with two outs. Carden stole second and the top of the order came up. Sanders walked to load the bases and David Hull, Korbin Koch, and Cody Galyan all singled to bring five runs home and put West Nodaway up 8-0 after four. It would have been worse had not Lucas Alvarez made another catch of Ogle’s deep drive to left.
Andrew Blackford came on in relief of Richardson in the fourth; once again, he nearly got out of the inning, but once again, North Nodaway could not get the elusive third out. Trace Hunt singled to left between third and short and went to second on a wild pitch. But catcher Karson Oberhauser nailed Hunt trying to steal third for the first out. Jacob Flint walked and the next two Rocket batters reached on errors as first baseman Ryan Riley was played by a hop off Gabe Goff’s grounder and Dylan Carden’s grounder was bobbled by Tyler Bix at short. That let in a run and put runners on second and third after Carden stole second.
Blackford threw a big breaking ball to strike out Sanders for the second out, but David Hull hit a hard grounder off third baseman Logan Keho’s glove that he had no play on, letting in a run. Korbin Koch walked and shortstop Tyler Bix was able to stop Cody Galyan’s drive up the middle, but he had no play either. Blackford was then called for a balk, letting in West Nodaway’s fourth run.
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