Coach Jake Shipman had a long heart to heart talk after the Rocket third, in which North Nodaway dodged a bullet. “We were shellshocked, and we just had to fix it,” he said. “But then our bats came alive, and Logan Keho settled down and threw strikes.”
It looked like North Nodaway would run themselves out of some good innings in the second and third. They got one back in the second when Jordan Jenkins doubled, but Cody Cline was gunned down at the plate as North Nodaway’s deficit was 4-2. West Nodaway had a chance to take advantage when Mason Chitwood doubled over everyone’s heads in dead center in the third with two outs, and Hunter Dawson followed with a walk. But Will Cordell popped out to Andrew Blackford at second for the third out.
North Nodaway got another run back in the third inning when Ryan Riley reached on a throwing error by the third baseman and Arron Coleman scored to make it 4-3. But he was later picked off at third to end the inning.
But then Logan Keho, who started off strong against DeKalb, but then tired early, did the exact opposite against West Nodaway; he started off slowly against the Rockets, but got stronger as the game progressed. He retired West Nodaway in order in the fourth, and North Nodaway rallied to get four to take the lead.
Andrew Blackford walked and North Nodaway’s #9 batter, Cody Cline, was up next against Ogle. He fouled off two different pitches with two strikes on him, got back to 3-2, and reached on second baseman Zayla Carlson’s error as she bobbled it. Blackford and Cline went to second and third on a wild pitch. North Nodaway’s best hitter, Jordan Jenkins, came up, but he popped out to Hunter Dawson at short. But Tyler Bix picked him up with a solid shot into right field to put North Nodaway in front, and he took second on a wild pitch. Bix took second on a wild pitch, but Karson Oberhauser flied out for North Nodaway’s second out. Arron Coleman was hit by a pitch and Dalton Smyser walked on a 3-2 pitch to keep North Nodaway’s chances alive, and Ryan Riley singled two runs home to make it 7-4.
West Nodaway tried to get right back in it as Dylan Carden singled and stole and Jacob Flint singled Carden to third with one out. The Rockets looked like they were perfectly set up for a big inning with the hard-hitting Mason Chitwood coming up, but as Flint took off for second, catcher Tyler Bix threw hard back to the mound. Carden, on third, took off for home prematurely and was caught off third as Keho threw to Coleman. Coleman made a strong throw home and Bix tagged out Carden; Chitwood popped out to Coleman to end the threat.
That allowed North Nodaway to break open the game as Andrew Blackford reached on a bobble by shortstop Hunter Dawson and Cody Cline and Jordan Jenkins walked to finish Ogle. Dawson came in to pitch for West Nodaway, but plunked Bix to force in a run. Karson Oberhauser singled home two more to make it 10-4 and put Bix on second.
West Nodaway nearly got out of the inning as Arron Coleman got called out on strikes and Dawson successfully picked off Bix at second. But shortstop Parker Ogle dropped the throw, and that was all Bix needed to make it safely to third to keep North Nodaway’s chances alive. Oberhauser took second on the throw to third. That brought up Dalton Smyser, who caught hold of a high pitch and crushed it into center field for a base hit. He was picked off first after taking too big a turn, but two runs scored to make it 12-4 after five.
Keho made it through part of the sixth, when he struck out Hunter Dawson. He walked Will Cordell, who took second on a wild pitch, but came back to strike out James Graham. He gave way to Jordan Jenkins and Grant Adkins greeted him with a screamer that looked like trouble. But it was right at first baseman Ryan Riley, who snagged it to end the inning.
Hunter Dawson got Logan Keho down in the count 2-2 and threw a perfect breaking ball that could have been strike three on the outside corner. But Keho fought it off and shot it up the middle for a base hit and took second and third on wild pitches. Andrew Blackford struck out and Cody Cline hit what should have been a groundout back to the mound to score Keho, but it turned out the ball had caromed off his foot, and everybody was called back as Keho went back to third and Cline went back to the plate. North Nodaway took advantage of the break as Cline walked and stole second. Jordan Jenkins flied out, too shallow to score a run, but for the second time, Tyler Bix picked him up as he shot a single to center to score both runs to end the game on the ten run rule.
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