North Nodaway’s baseball team has been having a rough year after getting off to a brutal start that snowballed. If one thing got fixed, something else would go wrong and the tailspin would continue. But all of a sudden, against Platte Valley, the team started to play better and made the 275 conference champions work for their 12-2 win. Then, they fell into a 5-0 hole against King City on the 25th. But instead of falling apart like they have so many other times before, the players said that the team was much more focused this time and started chipping away behind the pitching of Andrew Phillips and Brice Trimble, improved fielding, and timely hitting. They came back and got the 12-9 win.
On Monday, they hosted the winless East Harrison squad. But the Bobcats came in desperate for a win this year. Blaine Clements came back from an elbow injury to pitch for the first time in a month; he got off to a rocky start as Karlee Crouse jumped on him and dropped a single past Preston Hansen at first. Clements struck out one, but walked three more batters to force in a run, and then Brayden Eakes singled in two to make it 3-0 as East Harrison had a rare lead. A successful double steal put runners at second and third, but Clements settled down and struck out Sloane McClain to get out of the inning.
With one out, Mason Richardson walked and just as the wind died down, Aydan Blackford dropped one right on the left field line for a double as Richardson scored all the way from first to make it 3-1. He stole third and came home on a throwing error by catcher Jayce Davis to cut it to 3-2.
After Mustang second baseman Mason Richardson snagged a pop fly behind second, Clements settled in, striking out the next two batters. The first three Mustang batters walked to start the second; walks lead to runs and sure enough, Aydan Blackford singled home Sarah Wray and Ethan Fry and put Mason Richardson on third. He stole second and Brayden Eakes plunked Andrew Phillips to load the bases and finish his day. Blaine Clements greeted Trysen Ratliff with a double that sliced away from Sloane McClain in right to empty the bases and make it 7-3. But Sloane made a great defensive play, throwing a strong throw to Karlee Crose at second, who threw a perfect relay to Garrett Baker to get Clements out at third to blunt North Nodaway’s momentum and keep it at 7-3.
But Clements recovered from that play to work around a walk and get out of the third. Damian Dailey walked, stole second and third, and came home on Sarah Wray’s groundout to make it 8-3. East Harrison countered in the fourth when Trysen Ratliff walked, stole second, took third on a wild pitch, and came home on Jayce Davis’ single to make it 8-4.
But then North Nodaway put together the kind of inning that opponents have done to them all year in the bottom of the fourth. Aydan Blackford beat out an infield hit as shortstop Kobe Hill made a great stop in the hole, but his throw was not in time. Blackford stole second and third, Andrew Phillips walked, and Blaine Clements singled to left to score Blackford. Phillips was out trying to go first to third as Clements took second, but then the floodgates opened as Brice Trimble singled to left to score Clements and stole second and third. Preston Hansen walked and stole second, and then Trimble scored on a wild pitch as Hansen took third.
Two more Mustangs walked, finishing Ratliff. That set off a carousel as Jayce Davis tried to stem the bleeding for the Bobcats. But two walks, three runs, and a hit batter later, East Harrison turned to Garrett Baker. He struck out Phillips looking, but Blaine Clements singled and Brice Trimble doubled and another run scored on an errant pickoff before Baker got East Harrison out of the inning. By the time the dust had settled, North Nodaway was up 18-4 after four.
Brice Trimble came in and walked Hill to start the Bobcat fifth, but then froze the next three batters to get out of the inning and preserve the win.
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