Tigers beat Neosho in extra innings

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada Tigers used stellar pitching and timely hitting to outlast Neosho Friday, winning 7-5 on the road in 11 innings.

The two teams needed four extra frames to settle things, after each had chances to win it in the seventh inning.

Tied at four heading into the seventh, Nevada scored to take a 5-4 lead. Neosho was able to get the run back in the bottom half, and could have won the game but Nevada held on to force extra innings.

Cody Thompson, who started the game, made key pitches and got strong defense in key spots to keep the Tigers in the game as he went seven innings allowing eight hits and five runs, three of them earned. Thompson struck out six Wildcat hitters and walked two.

Kevin Post, who took the hill in the eighth inning, went the rest of the way for the Tigers. As good as Thompson was, Post was even more impressive. The senior held the Wildcats without a hit and only gave up two walks in four innings to pick up the victory. Post struck out one and most importantly kept Neosho off the board when only one run would have handed the Tigers a loss during the eighth, ninth and 10th innings.

Nevada broke through with two runs in the top of the 11th to finally break the 5-5 tie, and held on for the win. Nevada improved to 5-10 this season, and also got their first Southwest Conference victory of the season to improve that mark to 1-2.

Nevada coach Jared Brown was elated with the way Thompson and Post controlled the game on the mound.

"Our pitching performances ... that's top of the line right there," Brown said. "(Thompson) throwing seven innings and keeping them to five runs, he did an outstanding job.

"Kevin came in and really shut them down."

Brown was also happy with his defense despite giving up two errors that led to two unearned runs.

"We made a lot of plays," he said. "In 11 innings you've got to make a lot of plays to keep them to five runs."

Nevada out-hit Neosho 10-8, and also committed fewer errors ad Neosho had four.

At the plate, Nevada had four players with two hits each. Keith Overton (2-for-5), David Hawks (2-for-5), Jordan Kerbs (2-for-5) and Thompson (2-for-6) were the Tigers who fared the best at the dish.

Nevada also continued their aggressive nature on the base paths this season, stealing four more bases Friday.

"We battled the whole time," Brown said. "We fought and really wanted to win that ballgame.

"The kids are really learning how to play those close games and it's going to come in handy for us."

Nevada was supposed to play Carl Junction Monday at Lyons Stadium, but the game was postponed due to rain. Brown said they were in the process of rescheduling the game but have not yet settled on a date.

The next scheduled game for the Tigers is Thursday when they meet Neosho again, this time at home.