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Controversial calls mar Tigers’ 8-7 loss to East Newton
If instant replay were utilized in high school baseball, it very likely would have changed the outcome of the Nevada Tigers’ 8-7 Big 8 Conference loss to the visiting East Newton Patriots Thursday evening at Lyons Stadium.
The loss drops the beleaguered Tigers to 1-13 overall, and 1-2 in the Big 8 West division, while East Newton moves to 10-5 overall.
Both teams were seemingly victimized by close-calls in critical situations late in the game. The biggest came with two outs in the top of the seventh, and the contest knotted 7-7.
Nevada entered the frame leading 7-6, and needing three outs to secure their second victory of the season.
Nevada pitcher Elijah Nadurata yielded a leadoff triple to Brett Pendergraft, and the East Newton star center fielder was then plated on Zeke Chiles’ sacrifice fly out. After inducing Kaden Cook to fly out to Grant Miller in right field for the second out, Nadurata seemed to be in good shape with two outs and nobody on base.
Nadurata, a hard-throwing sophomore, then encountered trouble, plunking Sebastian Stewart. Colton Leech followed with a single, advancing Stewart to second.
Then came the play that may very well define the Tigers’ season, as Sam Stewart lashed Nadurata’s two-out offering into left.
Nevada senior Jayden Ast fielded it cleanly and came up firing to home, as Sebastian Stewart rounded third full-steam ahead. Nevada catcher Blake Pryor made an athletic play, leaping high into the air to secure Ast’s cannon throw, and in one fell swoop applying a sweep tag across Stewart’s back.
It appeared that Pryor’s tag had preserved the 7-7 tie, but it was not to be, as the home plate umpire ruled Sebastian Stewart safe, handing the Patriots an 8-7 advantage.
An animated Nevada head coach Danny Penn stormed out of the dugout pleading for an explanation, but to no avail.
“It was a bang-bang play,” recounted Penn. “Blake did a great job of going up to get the throw. From our vantage-point in the third base dugout, it looked like he caught it and brought the glove down on the base-runner’s back, before he got to the plate.”
“It looked very clear from our perspective (that he was out),” Penn said. “But we’re not right there on top of the play. The call went against us. It’s a tough one, but if we make the plays we need to before that, we’re never in that situation. It would be very easy to say the game hinged on that one call. But it did not, there were others plays we didn’t make that got us to that point.”
In the sixth inning Nevada had a controversial call go their way when Ast led off with a triple to the left field wall, but appeared to be thrown out by several feet as he dove into third. Ast, however, made a last second maneuver to avoid the tag and was ruled safe, much to the chagrin of East Newton.
Ast was then plated on Miller’s sacrifice fly, putting the Tigers on top, 7-6.
With Nevada down to its final three outs, and trailing 8-7 in the bottom of the seventh, Pryor led off the frame with a sharp single to left, and was then replaced by pinch-runner Jonah Brus.
Nadurata followed and dropped down a sacrifice bunt, advancing Brus to second. It appeared momentarily that Nadurata might have been safe, as the throw was snow-coned by the East Newton first baseman before dropping to the ground a split-second after he was called out.
After a brief deliberation by the two-man umpiring crew, Nadurata was sent to back to the dugout, for the innings first out.
Peyton Denney followed, flying out to right center. Brus elected to tag from second on the play and was gunned down by Pendergraft’s precision throw to third, bringing the wild affair to a close.
“We knew they had a fast guy on second,” Pendergraft, who also logged four innings on the mound, told the Daily Mail.
Pendergraft said he anticipated Brus was going to tag, and that he needed to get the ball out of his hand quickly.
“After pitching four innings, I didn’t think I would be able to get the ball near that far,” explained Pendergraft. “It was just pure adrenaline. We’ve had a couple close games, but that’s probably the most exciting moment we’ve had this year.”
Penn took responsibility for sending Brus, indicating he was surprised Pendergraft was able to make the spectacular throw. “I did not think there was any chance he would throw him out,” Penn said. “But he made a perfect throw, so you tip your hat to him. I told our guys postgame that I take ownership of that one.”
Penn further elaborated on his decision-making process.
“I read depth, and I saw that the center fielder was (drifting) towards right field, so his momentum was going away. And I just didn’t think he was going to get enough behind the throw.”
Scoring summary
A scoreless contest was broken open in the third, as Ethan Brummett’s RBI-single to center punctuated East Newton’s two-run frame.
In one of their best offensive innings of the season, Nevada struck back in the fourth, plating six runs — courtesy of RBI base hits by Nadurata, Denney, Ast , Miller, and Lane McNeley, and led, 6-2.
The Tigers quickly relinquished their four-run advantage as East Newton scratched across four runs in the top of the fifth, all coming with two outs.
“Any level of baseball, shutdown innings are important,” noted Penn. “After you get momentum on your side, it’s important that you keep that momentum. And I think right now, we’re losing focus.”
Entering the contest with a sparkling 2.88 ERA, Nevada starting pitcher Miller was one strike away from getting out of the fifth on several occasions.
“They came back and got four (that inning), and part of that is on our pitcher,” Penn said. “We walked the first two batters, and both of those runners come around to score. We’ve got to do a better job of tightening things up there.”
Said Penn: “When we have two strikes on a batter, especially when we’re ahead in the count, we don’t ever want to give that batter a pitch that he can drive. Multiple occasions, we were in that situation and we just missed our spot. We had multiple opportunities to get out of that inning, but just didn’t make the pitches we needed to.”
East Newton relief pitcher Cook was credited with the victory, while Nadurata (0-2) took the loss.
“You’ve heard the phrase ‘fake it until you make it,’ ” began Penn. “I think until Elijah is able to close the door, he’s always going to have a little doubt in the back of his mind. We’ve talked with all of our pitchers about having a bulldog mentality on the mound. Where you’re confident your stuff is good, and you can attack the strike zone without having to nibble. And I think right now, Elijah is just having a hard time of carrying that mentality through. He’s a sophomore, so that’s to be expected. But we’re confident he’s going to get through it, and that he’s going to be better off because of it.”
Penn added that he was pleased with the offensive performances of multiple players, including Ast, Nadurata, and Denney.
“Elijah is someone who is making progress from game-to-game, just in terms of having better at-bats,” Penn said. “Multiple times today he made adjustments in the middle of an at-bat, put good swings on pitches, and got on base for us. And Jayden swung well down at the bottom of our lineup today.”
UP NEXT
The Tigers return to the diamond next Tuesday, for a Big 8 Conference clash, and rivalry-game road-matchup, with Lamar.