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Tigers fall to second-ranked Harrisonville
The Nevada Tigers varsity baseball team got back into action on Monday hoping to continue their winning ways against the Wildcats of Harrisonville High School.
Both teams earned the top seed in their respective districts and hopes were very high for both sides to continue their winning ways as the final week of the regular season began.
The Wildcats came into Monday's action with a 15-6 record on the year and averaging 10 runs per game, earning them a No. 2 ranking in Class 3. All but one of Harrisonville's losses this year have come to much larger Class 4 teams, with their only Class 3 loss coming at the hands of Grain Valley.
That strong record against Class 3 schools ultimately improved as the Wildcats picked up their 16th victory of the year, beating the Tigers by a final score of 8-4.
"I feel like we didn't come to the baseball field ready to play baseball today," head coach Kellan Foster said. "I don't think our heads were in the game."
Nevada starter Colby Shepherd got off to a slightly rocky start in the contest as he walked the first two batters he faced. Shepherd's troubles continued through the remainder of the inning, eventually resulting in one run on two walks and a hit batter.
The Tigers were able to recover quickly and knotted the game up at 1-1 after Austin Baldwin hit a one-out triple to the gap in right center and was eventually brought home on Shepherd's sacrifice bunt.
Shepherd's control issues on the mound continued through the second inning as he had to pitch from behind to nearly every hitter he faced. Shepherd looked as though he might be able to get through the inning with no damage as he retired two of the first three batters to come to the plate, but the Wildcats were able to get the bats going again, eventually adding three more runs on three hits to take a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the second.
The Tiger offense couldn't seem to find their rhythm through the early innings as they were able to get plenty of base runners against Harrisonville's Kyle Livingston, but were unable to take advantage.
The Tiger defense was never able to find a rhythm through the early innings and those struggles in the field allowed the Wildcats to continue their streak of consecutive innings with at least one run to three. Shepherd's control on the mound steadily began to improve, but the lack of defensive help allowed the Wildcats to extend their lead to 5-1 heading into the bottom of the third.
The Tigers were finally able to answer in the home half of the frame, taking advantage of three walks by Livingston. Despite coming out of the inning with no hits, the Tigers were able to put up one run in the frame to cut the lead to 5-2 heading into the fourth.
The Tigers continued to have tremendous troubles shutting down a very good Wildcats team through the middle innings and Harrisonville extended their lead once again in the top of the fourth, adding two more runs. The Tigers quickly began to see the game getting out of hand as they were finally able to bring the top of the fourth inning to an end down 7-2.
Both teams had a very vocal fan base in attendance for the game, but Harrisonville seemed better able to feed on the fan support as the Tigers seemed to be unable to find the rhythm they needed to keep the game under control.
Ron Johnson took over on the mound in the fifth inning for the Tigers and was able to retire Harrisonville's leadoff hitter fin his first inning of work -- the first time the leadoff hitter had been retired in the game -- and went on to put the Wildcats down without any damage for the first time in the game.
"He threw great," Foster said. "It's been a while and Ron came in and he threw it well."
The story of the night seemed to be that of missed opportunities. The Tigers struggled all game long with defensive miscues that allowed the Wildcats to put up most of their runs and several squandered chances on the base paths as well.
By the time all was said and done, Johnson was able to continue the strong performance he showed when he came on in relief, almost completely shutting down the Wildcats offense for the remainder of the game with the only blemish on his record coming when he allowed one run in the seventh.
Nevada was finally able to get on the scoreboard again in the seventh inning as Shepherd opened the inning with a long home run down the right field line and Kholten Wilson followed later with an RBI double that scored Taylor Scotten from first base, but it proved to be too little, too late as the Tigers found themselves on the short end of the 8-4 final score.
The Tigers were unable to recover from the defensive struggles that plagued them throughout the contest and leaving runners on base continued to be an ever-present issue as well, allowing the Wildcats to come out on top and hand Nevada their sixth loss of the year.
With that loss, the Tigers fall to 9-6 on the year with just two games left in the regular season. Weather permitting, the first of those two games is set for this afternoon at 4:30 p.m., as McDonald County heads into Lyons Stadium.