Red Sox fall to Neosho at home, 17-7

Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail Ace Whitesell pitches for the Red Sox AA American Legion team during Thursday's game against Neosho. [Click to enlarge]

The Nevada Red Sox AA squad got back into action Thursday night hoping to break the .500 mark in district play as they hosted Neosho. That was not to be, however, as a 10-run fourth inning catapulted Neosho to a 17-7 road victory.

The Red Sox came into the night with a 1-1 record in district play against a completely unknown opponent in Neosho. Red Sox head coach Joe Dobson said that he had not had any opportunity to see Neosho play and had not heard anything about their prior performances this season, thus giving him no real notion of what he and his team may be up against.

The game got off to a rocky start on the mound for Nevada's Grant Wolfe as he walked the very first batter of the game, Matt Link, and was able to find the strike zone with just two of his first seven pitches. Link eventually came around to score on a wild pitch, but Wolfe was quickly able to gather himself and get out of the inning with no further damage.

The Red Sox came to bat for the first time in the game already down by a score of 1-0, but Neosho starter A.J. Enloe had some control issues of his own and the Red Sox were quickly able to erase the lead. Nevada was able to take advantage of one hit, two walks and an error in the frame to put up their first three runs of the game and take a 3-1 lead into the second inning.

Wolfe was quickly able to find his groove in the second inning and faced just two over the minimum, keeping Neosho off the board and giving Nevada a chance to open up the game. That didn't happen, however, as Enloe was able to find a rhythm of his own and with the help of some strong defensive play behind him, kept the Red Sox off the board in the inning.

Neosho was able to cut into the two-run lead in the top of the third inning after a costly two-base error that gave them a runner on third base with just one out was quickly followed by an RBI single by Silas Bohannon. By the time the inning came to a close, Neosho was able to plate three more runs, retaking the lead at 5-3 heading into the bottom of the third inning.

The Red Sox were able to cut that lead in half in the bottom of the inning, plating one run on three hits. Despite allowing the Red Sox to load the bases with two out, Neosho was able to get out of the inning with minimal damage and went into the fourth still holding a 5-4 lead.

Spencer Scotten took over the mound for the Red Sox in the top of the fourth and Neosho was quickly able to get to him as he battled control issues early in his outing as well. Neosho padded their lead with 10 runs in the frame, opening up a 15-4 advantage heading into the bottom of the fourth.

Scotten left the game with one out in the inning, but eight of Neosho's 10 runs were charged to him. Nearly all of those runs were of the unearned variety, however, as the Red Sox defense committed four costly errors in the frame, along with three wild pitches.

The Red Sox cut just enough out of Neosho's lead in the home half of the frame to bring it back to single digits as they were able to put up two runs, taking a 15-6 deficit into the top of the fifth.

Neosho built their lead back to 10 with one run in the top of the sixth inning to take a 16-6 lead into the home half of the frame.

The Red Sox wouldn't go down without a fight and cut the Neosho lead back to single digits once again in the bottom of the sixth, but it ultimately proved not to be enough. Neosho got the double-digit lead back once again in the top of the seventh as they added one more run to their lead to bring the game to what ultimately became the final score of 17-7.

With that loss, the Red Sox fall to 1-2 against district competition this season and are set to be in action again tomorrow as they host McDonald County at 1 p.m.