Nevada knocks off Mount Vernon in tournament semifinals
The Nevada Tigers notched their second consecutive walk-off victory at the 43rd annual Bill O’ Dell Baseball Tournament in Carthage on Thursday, defeating Mt. Vernon 6-5. Nevada’s victory came courtesy of Branden Harder’s game-winning RBI single to left field with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“Today was another example of us playing the whole game and picking each other up,” Nevada head coach Danny Penn said. “We made a couple of mental-focus errors today that could have gotten us down, but we didn’t let that happen.”
Nevada seniors Tyler Ketterman and Myles McNeley came through with key RBI singles.
“I’m so proud of our willingness to be a ‘cog’ there in the seventh inning,” explained Penn. “It would have been so easy for our batters to try to win the game on their own, but we had disciplined at-bats and just took what they gave us.”
Penn continued: “Braeden (Hinton) worked a good at-bat before being hit by a pitch. And give credit to Branden for battling on that final at-bat in the seventh. He fouled off numerous pitches before getting one he could put in play. He did a nice job of getting a pitch up and getting it into the outfield.”
Penn said Logan Armstrong and McNeley were Nevada’s “unsung heros.”
“Logan did a great job on the mound in his first varsity start,” Penn noted. “He kept us in the game and didn’t allow any earned runs. In the batters box, he had two key sacrifices that both led to runs scoring.”
Penn added that McNeley also had an excellent outing on the mound.
“Myles did a great job throwing the last two innings,” Penn said. “He worked down in the zone, pitching to contact. We rolled a nice (third base to second base to first base) double-play to get out of an inning.”
Additionally, Penn said he was impressed with sophomore Peyton Denney’s two-out RBI single in the second, and Will Johnson’s leadoff walk in the seventh “to get things going.”
For Nevada, Armstrong tossed 3 2/3 innings, yielding three hits, and five runs (zero earned), while walking three and striking out three. Harder pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing a lone hit, while McNeley shut the door on Mt. Vernon with two scoreless inning en route to the victory.
For the Tigers at the dish, McNeley was 1-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and a run; Ketterman, 1-for-3 with an RBI and stolen base; Hinton, 1-for-3 with an RBI; Harder 1-for-3 with an RBI and walk; Jarrett Owen, 1-for-3 with a run; and Denney, 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Championship game
The Tigers (3-2 overall) fell to Monett 5-1 in Friday’s tournament championship game.
Check Tuesday’s edition for additional details