Staff Photo by Dustin Ward
Senath-Hornersville players celebrate their 3-2 extra-inning win against Holcomb Thursday.
HOLCOMB, Mo. - The Senath-Hornersville Lions varsity baseball team has made a habit of playing close games at the start of the 2012 fall season.
Senath-Hornersville entered Thursday's road contest against the Holcomb Hornets with a 1-1 record after winning its first game against Bernie 7-6 and suffering an 11-10 extra-inning loss at Campbell Tuesday.
Staff Photo by Dustin Ward
Holcomb's Cameron Clark eyes a passing ball.
Extra innings were required to determine a winner after Holcomb rallied from a 2-0 deficit.
Senath-Hornersville leadoff hitter Kyle Moore didn't back away from an extra-inning pressure situation Thursday. Moore fouled off countless pitches by Holcomb reliever Michael Glover with a two-out full-count and the bases-loaded in the top of the eighth inning of a tie game.
"I fouled off four or five pitches," Moore said of his eighth-inning at-bat. "I think I saw a fastball everytime. I was just trying to do whatever it took to get a run in."
Moore finally found a way to calculate the go-ahead run in the lengthy at-bat when he didn't swing at 3-2 pitch that soared low and away. The RBI-walk put Senath-Hornersville on top 3-2.
Holcomb threatened to overtake the Lions in the bottom of the eight when it put runners on second and third with just one out. The scoring threat was halted in the Hornets' next at-bat when Holcomb's Lance Ruff lined out to second for the second out of the frame and the Lions tossed the ball to the second base for the final out before baserunners could return to their respective bases.
The timely double-play gave Senath-Hornersville a 3-2 win against Holcomb.
"Overall it is a good baseball game for us because we've got some younger players," Senath-Hornersville coach Jamie Johnson said. "Some kids really stepped forward today.
"I thought we played pretty clean baseball today and didn't have many errors," Johnson continued. "It's just a great baseball game and good for our program to win a game like this."
Senath-Hornersville needed superb defense to force extra innings. The Lions' defenders threw the go-ahead run out at home plate with one out in the sixth and again with two-outs in the bottom of the seventh.
"Zach Johnson did a good job of coming in hard on that base hit to left with runners in scoring position [in the seventh inning]," Johnson said. "He comes up and just makes a great throw to the plate to nail the runner. Brady Bibbs made a great play at third [in the sixth]. That's a freshman and a sophomore making those plays right there."
The Lions never trailed against Holcomb.
Senath-Hornersville jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the third when cleanup hitter Nano San Miguel belted two-out solo homer over the right field fence. The Lions extended its lead to 2-0 in the top of the fourth when Moore connected for a two-out RBI-double.
"It was a breaking ball," Moore said of the double. "I looked to go to right field, got a good pitch and drove it the other way."
Holcomb did not collect a hit off of Lions' starting pitcher Austin Autry, but managed to erase the deficit without a hit in the bottom of the fifth.
The Hornets' Chance Davis drew a leadoff walk against Autry in the fifth. Ruff was then hit-by-pitch to put runners at first and second with nobody out. Johnson elected to lift Autry after he faced Ruff.
"I took Austin out with him throwing a no-hitter, but it was time," Johnson said. "That way he had a positive feeling about his outing today. I felt like he threw the ball excellent today. That's big for him as a left-handed freshman. Holcomb has a good hitting team and to hold them down for that long is pretty salty."
Ricardo Salas replaced Autry on the mound and pitched the remainder of the game for the Lions.
Holcomb loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth after the first hitter Salas faced reached base on an infield error.
Salas then got Colton Dunbar to pop out on the infield for the first out of the inning.
Pearson McClendon followed with a sacrifice fly to right to push Holcomb's first run across and cut the deficit to 2-1.
"I was just trying to hit it somewhere and put the ball in play," McClendon said "I thought their pitcher was throwing well and I was just trying to get the bat on the ball anywhere I could."
Cameron Clark followed with a walk to load the bases again. The Hornets then tied the game at two in Hunter Swafford's at-bat when every baserunner was allowed to advance one bag because a wild pitch stuck in the fence of the backstop.
Salas managed to preserve a tie game when he got Swafford to fly out later in the at-bat.
Senath-Hornersville loaded the bases in the top of the sixth after Brady Bibbs, Shane Crawford and Salas collected consecutive one-out singles off of Hornets' starting pitcher Dustin Houart. Holcomb escaped the jam unscaved when Glover struck out Senath-Hornersville's next two hitters to end the frame.
Holcomb picked up its first hit in the bottom of the sixth when Glover collected a leadoff single.
Swafford added a single in the seventh and Glover collected a single in the eighth to account for the Hornets' three hits.
Crawford, Salas and Roberto Rodriguez drew consecutive one-out walks in the bottom of the eighth before Moore followed with a game-winning RBI-walk.
"Close game and hats off to Senath," Holcomb baseball coach Matt Casper said. "They had good pitching from their starter and their reliever threw strikes.
"Our body language didn't look good from the start of the game," Casper added. "We have to be prepared and realize nothing is going to be easy for us. I just don't feel like we deserved to win today. We had a chance to win, but didn't deserve a win.
"We didn't hit the ball well at all," Casper continued. "We had to kind of result to small ball and make them make plays. They did a decent job and bared down when it was tight. We had some tough breaks in the late innings and just could not get a run across."
Holcomb, which beat South Pemiscot 5-4 on Tuesday, drops to 3-2 with the loss.
Weather permitting Senath-Hornersville will play at Delta C-7 Friday. Holcomb is scheduled to play at Bernie Friday.
Senath-Hornersville will host Cooter next Tuesday.
"Cooter has a great program and they always come ready to play," Johnson said. "It's nice to be going home. We haven't played a game at home yet and the kids are pretty excited and looking forward to it."
Senath-Hornersville 3, Holcomb 2
SHS 001 100 01 - 3 6 1
HHS 000 020 00 - 2 3 2
WP - Ricardo Salas. LP - Michael Glover. HR - Nano San Miguel (SH). 2B - Kyle Moore (SH). Multiple hits - Holcomb: Glover 2-3.
Source: http://www.dddnews.com/story/1889475.html
pasadena pasadena famu famu martina mcbride terry jones elf on the shelf
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.