North Nodaway could not capitalize on their win over DeKalb as they fell 9-2 to Nodaway Valley Thursday. The Mustangs had every right to expect a win as the Thunder were winless coming into the game and North Nodaway had eight games under their belt compared to three for Nodaway Valley. But the Thunder looked like they were the ones with all the momentum Thursday, while the Mustangs are still searching for consistency.
North Nodaway sent Andrew Phillips out to the mound against the Thunder, but he promptly hit the first two batters and walked the third. Walks lead to runs, and sure enough, Tyler Gray grounded out to score the first Thunder run to make it 1-0.
Meanwhile, North Nodaway ran their way out of two innings Thursday. The first time was when Ethan Fry walked with one out in the Mustang first, only to be picked off.
Walks lead to errors as well as runs and Jeremiah Dobbins lost Lane Larabee’s ball in the sun and let in Blake Bohannon in the second. That set up Preston Jenkins’ single to bring in two more green shirts and make it 4-0 after two.
More walks threatened to take the game into ten run territory in the third, but then Mustang shortstop Brice Trimble doubled Garrett Carpenter off second after catching a pop fly to hold the Thunder scoreless. From there, North Nodaway was able to make several outstanding defensive plays to keep Nodaway Valley from making it a ten run rout.
Cooper Snodderly, only a freshman, crushed a double down the left field line. Trimble’s throwing error put runners on second and third, and Kayden Conn’s carom off Phillips resulted an infield hit in the Thunder fourth to make it 5-0 and finish Phillips. But after Preston Jenkins walked to load the bases, Ethan Fry began sporting a nasty breaking ball, one of the biggest that enemy batters will have to deal with all year. He struck out Tyler Gray and then Garrett Carpenter grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, Trimble to Mason Richardson to Preston Hansen as the Mustangs got out of the inning.
Aydan Blackford walked to start the Mustang fourth, took second on a wild pitch, and Andrew Phillips singled him home to make it 5-1. Blaine Clements and Damian Dailey struck out, but Preston Hansen walked on a 3-2 pitch to keep the inning alive and Brice Trimble singled to score Phillips to make it 5-2. But just as North Nodaway was starting to get themselves some momentum, they ran their way out of a big inning as Hansen was cut down trying to go first to third on the play and the momentum went back to the Thunder.
Sure enough, the first three Thunder batters in the fifth walked to start the inning. Walks lead to runs, and it would have been worse without another outstanding defensive play. Cooper Snodderly singled in Brody McGinness and Michael Cook to make it 7-2, but Mustang shortstop Brice Trimble alertly picked off Blake Bohannon taking too wide of a turn off second. Kayden Conn later crushed a double to the wall to score Snodderly to make it 8-2, but some nasty breaking pitches from Fry helped get the Mustangs out of the inning still in the game.
But even though they were starting to get better swings against Thunder pitcher Lane Larabee, they couldn’t make a dent in the deficit as Aydan Blackford’s screamer in the Mustang fifth was run down by the Thunder left fielder to take a run away. Damian Dailey crushed two balls in the Mustang sixth, but they landed foul and he later struck out. Meanwhile, Blake Bohannon singled in Michael Cook to make it 9-2 in the Thunder sixth.
Despite the game being out of reach in the seventh, North Nodaway still had one more outstanding defensive play in them to keep the Thunder off the board in the seventh. With one out and runners on first and second, Tyler Gray hit an apparent RBI single to left, only for Mustang left fielder Damian Dailey to uncork a laser beam to home to cut down Cooper Snodderly at the plate to keep them off the board. Ethan Fry did the rest, freezing Garrett Carpenter with one of his nasty breaking balls to get out of the inning.
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