Northeast Nodaway’s baseball team, given up for dead and given a seventh seed, became the only seventh seeded team in the state to advance to a district finals when they beat King City 5-3 Wednesday night. The game was moved to Plattsburg due to field conditions at Maysville. On the other side of the state, Neosho nearly became another seventh seed to make it to a district finals after knocking off second seed Republic, but they were beat 2-1 by Nixa in the semifinals Friday.
As for coach Cody Green, he was happy with the team’s new role. “We like being the underdog,” he said.
The Bluejays got off to a rocky start against Tri-County, only to use a combination of scratch hits, steals, and errors to knock off the second seeded team. King City was just as reluctant to see their season end and took Gilman City into 11 innings in Maysville in a game that would not end until 12:27 am before they finally got the 5-4 win.
Northeast had a chance for a big inning when Reece Gray singled and stole and Tyler New reached on an error, putting runners on first and third in the first with one out. But then on the first and third steal situation, King City threw to the pitcher, who picked off Gray and that was all that was needed to give them hope for the rest of the game.
The artificial surface was an adjustment for both teams, as Brayden Stevens was played by the hops at shortstop, but he managed to get all three outs in the Wildkat first. Northeast had played on artificial turf before when they traveled to Mid-Buchanan.
With one out in the King City second, Caiden Wainscott beat out an infield hit, only for catcher Grant McIntyre to throw him out stealing. In the second and third innings, Northeast loaded the bases up, but could not get the big hit to get them home.
Once again, King City threatened with one out in the third after Carter Heinrich beat out an infield hit. Bluejay catcher Grant McIntyre tried to pick him off, only to throw it away as Heinrich, a runner with good speed, took off for second. But Camdain Frisch was on his toes and backed up the play perfectly and Heinrich was a sitting duck at second base.
In the fourth, Coy Cordonnier hit a shot to deep center field over Tyler New’s head, only to get nailed trying to go for two. That turned out to be a big item when Graham Medsker walked and Ryder Sample doubled him to third. Jacob Jensen grounded out to get the first run home and get King City up 1-0. Without the out at second, it would have been much worse. King City had three runners thrown out on the basepaths that night.
With one out in the Bluejay fifth, Grant McIntyre walked, stole second, and went to third on catcher Ryder Sample’s throwing error. King City almost got out of the inning when Camdain Frisch grounded out and McIntyre couldn’t score on the play. But then Landon Wilmes walked to keep the inning alive and King City tried the pickoff play at third again, only for pitcher Alex Jones to throw it away and for Grant McIntyre to come home. Grant was safe at the plate after the throw came in and then Landon Wilmes tried for third; King City threw the ball away again and Wilmes came home to put the Bluejays up 2-1.
Maddox Farmer walked and Jaxzen Johnston walked to start the King City fifth. Walks lead to runs and sure enough, Alex Jones singled home Farmer to tie the game up again at 2-2. But then the bottom of the order came through for Northeast as Jace Cameron caught hold of one and hit it off the wall in left for a double. Sawyer Thurman advanced him to third on a groundout and Brayden Stevens walked and stole second. This time, Northeast was wary of King City’s pickoff tactics and didn’t come too far off third.
Once again, King City almost got out of the inning as Reece Gray popped out to the catcher, but then Tyler New, after a long battle with Jones, took a full count and shot one back up the middle for a base hit to score two. Grant McIntyre followed with a double off the right center field wall to plate New to make it 5-2. All of Northeast Nodaway’s five runs came with two outs.
But Reece Gray, who had only pitched one full game before, was tiring and walked Ryder Sample to start the King City sixth. King City was a team that did not give up easily; they had come back in the late innings against North Nodaway after falling behind to jump start their current run. Their players started going bezerk, howling and barking like dogs. Sample stole second. Jensen struck out, but a wild pitch put Sample on third and Caiden Wainscott’s groundout cut it to 5-3. Maddox Farmer walked and Gray ran out of pitches, forcing Northeast to use Landon Wilmes, since Brayden Stevens was not available.
The din from the King City dugout grew to a fevered pace as Johnston walked, but then Carter Heinrich struck out to end the inning with the Bluejays still up 5-3.
After Heinrich robbed Carter Chapman in right and Caiden Wainscott made a sensational play at second to rob Jace Cameron of another hit to prompt chirping from the Bluejay side as they thought he was safe, the dogs in the King City dugout were howling and barking again as Cordonnier walked with one out. That brought the dangerous Graham Medsker up, but Landon Wilmes got a huge out when Grant McIntyre grabbed Medsker’s foul tip right before it hit the ground, and now it was King City’s turn to start squawking at the umpire.
Ryder Sample singled to right center field to put Coy Cordonnier on third and stole second, putting the tying run in scoring position. Jacob Jensen hit a tricky grounder between first and second; that is one of the more tricky grounders to play as it is always tough to know whether to cover the bag and let the second baseman take the ball or for the first baseman to take it and risk an infield hit. But Jace Cameron snagged the ball and beat Jensen to the bag for the final out.
Maysville beat East Atchison 3-1 in the other semifinal game. Dillon Willis pitched a complete game for the Wolverines in the win. Both outfields took turns making great plays to keep the other team off the board. With one out in the Wolves fourth, Brody Wennihan got a solid singled to left and took second when the Maysville left fielder let the ball get by. He later came home on a botched rundown play. But Maysville woke up with three runs in the fifth starting with a leadoff walk to Kris Gabbard. Walks lead to runs, and sure enough, Gabbard stole second and Carson Bray singled him home. Drake Bennett squared up to bunt, pulled his bat back just in time, and was plunked, prompting a round of chirping from the Wolves, who contended that it should have been a strike. Parker Sollars laid down a sac bunt to move them to second and third and Coy Sobotka grounded to the pitcher. The Wolves went home with it, but Bray was safe as Bennett took third and Sobotka reached first. Max Heintz’s groundout scored Bennett to make it 3-1.
Maysville nearly added to their lead in the sixth, but East Atchison made a great play to nail Carter Harms at home plate. Harms did a flip over the catcher, to no avail.
No comments:
Post a Comment