Nevada baseball defeats Carl Junction in tournament play
By Eric Wade
Nevada Daily Mail
CARTHAGE -- The Nevada Tigers baseball team got back into action Friday afternoon in the Bill O'Dell Tournament with a lot on the line as head coach Danny Penn's squad took on Carl Junction for a spot in the tournament championship game.
The Tigers did what they could to lock up their spot in the championship game Thursday night with an 8-5 win over Seneca, but it turned out to not be quite enough as Carl Junction entered the day needing a win over the Cardinals of Webb City to stay in the hunt. That was exactly what head coach Flave Darnell's Bulldogs got as they took down Webb City by a final score of 6-3.
That set up Friday's confrontation with far more on the line. The objective for the Tigers was simple, however -- win and you're in.
The Tigers took that objective to heart on the heels of a six-run fourth inning, taking the victory by a final score of 8-4.
"Six-run innings always make me happy," Penn said. "As long as I'm in that third base coaching box."
The win didn't come without struggles for both sides, however. The two teams combined for 12 runs in the contest, but did so with 11 combined errors on top of it.
Despite that plethora of miscues, however, no advantage was really gained for either team. Roughly half of those errors did occur in innings in which runs were scored, but none of those errors gave rise to a significant rally for either side.
"There wasn't really an error that really opened the flood gates," Penn said. "I can't think of any errors that, you know, had the play been made, it would have been the third out and then, the other team kept going to score two or three runs."
The Tigers not only had far more defensive trouble than they have up to this point, but another problem Penn has been happy to not see in previous games surfaced as well. For the first few innings of Thursday's game, the Tigers simply seemed tense, leading to a substantial increase in Penn's stress level.
"I wasn't happy with their body language. We weren't on the hop like I always want us to be," Penn said.
"Nothing good happens when you're doing it slowly. If you're moving, if you're putting energy out, good things happen.
"I'll always accept mistakes from going too hard. I will not accept mistakes from being lazy, being lackadaisical."
Things didn't turn out as bad as they could have from that standpoint, however. Carl Junction took a 1-0 lead with a single run in the second inning, but thanks to a strong performance on the mound from Easton Mitchell and equally strong defense behind him, that was all the damage that was done throughout the early innings.
"Those four double plays in the first four innings helped keep it down," Penn said of the low-scoring affair the game appeared to be through its early stages. "That 4-3 double play, we really seem to like."
The Tigers took full advantage of that stiff defense that kept them in the game when the bats finally started to come to life in the home half of the third. Thanks to two hits, a free pass and an error, the Tigers plated a pair of runs in that frame to take a 2-1 lead into the fourth.
That was when things finally fell into place for the Tigers.
In the home half of the fourth inning, the Tigers added to the momentum they had gained the inning before with another strong rally. This time, however, the Tigers were able to string together seven hits and benefitted from one Bulldogs error on their way to a six-run rally to take an 8-1 lead.
Though the Tigers had the game well in hand, it didn't come without a price. During warm-ups prior to the third inning, Penn said starting third baseman Trey Ast felt something pop in his arm, forcing him to come out of the game.
"In warmups there before the third inning, he kind of felt something in his arm," Penn said. "He's someone that we may need to have throw for us this year, so we kind of played that one cautious."
No updates were immediately available on the condition of Ast's arm, but Penn did say the injury didn't appear serious.
The Bulldogs tried to get back into the contest in the top of the fifth inning and nearly did so, with some help from the Tigers defense. Three hits and an error in the frame seemed to give the Bulldogs new life, but the Tigers ultimately held on and closed out the rally when Mitchell was able to regain his composure, bringing an end to the inning with the Tigers still up, 8-4.
"He got in trouble when he elevated pitches. Easton is not going to overpower any hitters, so he's got to hit his spots.," Penn said of his starter.
"It was a bad combination. They were swinging the bats and we were elevating pitches up around the waist."
That turned out to be all the Bulldogs had in them and Nevada held on to take the victory by a final score of 8-4. Mitchell finished the day allowing four runs on seven hits with four strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter on 88 pitches.
"Just like Cole was economical with his pitches last night, Easton was the same today," Penn said. "He was able to mix in his curve ball well. He's got that submarine pitch he can kind of mix in every now and again, also."
With the win, the Tigers improved to 3-0 in the tournament, 4-1 overall for the season, and will return to Carthage to take on the host Tigers for the tournament championship at 2 p.m., Saturday, at Carl Lewton Stadium.