West Nodaway had shown some promise in recent games despite their winless record; they had lost 15-14 to a solid Green City squad at North Harrison and a 14-11 heartbreaker to Platte Valley, who is a better team than what they showed against NEN the week before.
The Bluejays did not get the school record for runs Thursday; they had 24 against DeKalb during the 2016-2017 season, a 24-6 victory. But they were able to get the record for biggest margin of victory at 19 runs. The win clinches at least a tie for the conference championship, their sixth straight banner on the wall for the Bluejays. NEN has two games remaining, while every other team in the conference has at least two conference losses. Platte Valley beat East Atchison 3-2 earlier in the year, while the Bluejays have beaten East Atchison 10-3 early in the year. NEN has beaten Platte Valley twice this year.
NEN has scored 10 or more runs in every game this year besides their first game, a 4-2 squeaker over Platte Valley. Only three teams have gone the distance against the Bluejays, as of the completion of Thursday’s game. The knock on the Bluejays this year has been the fact that they play on a short field and can hit balls out of the yard which either fall in for singles or are long outs elsewhere. But they have shown the ability to score on big fields as well; they scored 19 and 21 runs in two games on North Nodaway’s field. They scored 15 and 10 runs on North Platte’s field in their tournament win there earlier this year. Conversely, during NEN’s first two years of existence, it was the other team timing it and crushing it out of NEN’s tiny field.
West Nodaway had every expectation of doing better against the Bluejays; they were showing some promise after a winless start, and they had been playing better the last two games. They sent up Jacob Flint, who had thrown a no-hitter against North Nodaway last year. But with the wind howling out to center field on a cold, blustery day, the Bluejays had little trouble against him. Spencer Weir hit a home run into the ditch behind center field to start the game. Levi Boulting walked and Chet Spire singled. Flint threw a big breaking ball to strike out Ethan Adwell, but then Reed McIntyre singled to right to score Boulting and moved Spire up to third. McIntyre stole second.
From there, the floodgates opened as Spencer Gray hit a pop fly that dropped in front of left fielder Gabe Goff to score two. Maverick Price, who has a way of being a human magnet that attracts baseballs somehow, got plunked yet again and a four-pitch walk to Auston Pride loaded the bases.
A huddle temporarily stopped the bleeding as Ben Boswell grounded into a force at home for the second out of the inning. But then Spencer Weir reached on third baseman Bryan Hiatt’s bobble and Levi Boulting hit a grand slam that barely cleared the wall in left, pushed out by the raging wind.
Ten straight Bluejays would reach safely as they teed off on Flint. Chet Spire singled and Ethan Adwell homered to center. Reed McIntyre reached as the shortstop lost it in the sun and Spencer Gray was hit by a pitch. McIntyre stole third and scored when catcher Parker Ogle threw it away, allowing Gray to take second. Maverick Price singled to right center to score Gray and the wind wreaked havoc again as it blew Auston Pride’s fly ball out of reach of the second baseman for a base hit to put runners on first and third. Ben Boswell walked to load the bases and Spencer Weir doubled into the left field corner to score two and put the Bluejays up 15-0 after one.
Ethan Adwell pitched and went the distance as the Bluejays were able to save their arms for the showdown with East Atchison Tuesday. With one out in the first, Gabe Goff singled, but Adwell recovered to get Parker Ogle to chase a big breaking ball for the second out. Dylan Carden singled up the middle into center, but Adwell got Jacob Flint to chase a pitch that darted into the dirt for the third out.
The strike zone got exponentially bigger in the second and third inning for NEN, but they were still able to put runs on the board. Facing Hunter Dawson, they got back to back jacks in the second as Chet Spire hit a home run between the center field foul poll and the tree, while Ethan Adwell hit his second of the day, a shot which just cleared the left field foul pole. With two outs in the West Nodaway second, Bryan Hiatt was hit by a pitch from Adwell, only for catcher Chet Spire to throw him out stealing after a late break on a passed ball for the third out.
NEN teed off in the third inning despite the expansive strike zone as Auston Pride walked and they bunched up three straight singles to score two runs out of that. Chet Spire struck out, but then they bunched up three more singles to score two more. Gabe Goff’s two run shot in the third accounted for West Nodaway’s lone tallies.
No comments:
Post a Comment