Tigers fall to Clinton at home

Thursday, April 22, 2010
Nevada first baseman Ron Johnson connects for a single in the first inning of the Tigers' game against the Clinton Cardinals Tuesday afternoon. --Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail

"It seems like we're getting it in clumps." That has been the story of the year for head coach Kellan Foster's Nevada Tigers baseball team and Tuesday afternoon was no exception as they suffered a 10-9 loss at home at the hands of the Clinton Cardinals on the heels of a six-run fifth inning.

The Tigers have almost continuously banked on the big inning to get them through all season long and just four days after putting up 10 in the seventh inning of a 12-2 victory over the Seneca Indians, the Tigers came back from a 7-1 deficit to bring new life to what was seemingly a lost cause on the diamond at Lyons Stadium. Relief pitcher Kyle "Bubba" Banes got the inning started with a double off the fence in left center and things simply went downhill from there for the Cardinals as Nevada plated six runs on six hits and sent 10 hitters to the plate.

"We've got some guys that are hitting it well," Foster said. "We hit it well and we actually hit it a lot."

Up to that point in the contest, the Tigers had no trouble seeing Clinton starter Hayden Lowe and getting the bat on the ball, but simply couldn't seem to get a hit out of it. Nearly every time a Tiger hitter got solid contact, a Clinton defender seemed to be in just the right spot to rob a hit.

But as they have done all year, the Tigers were ultimately able to find the offense when they needed it to tie the game after digging themselves an early 7-1 hole. Before that big inning, the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead after just half a frame before adding three more in the third and three in the fourth off Nevada starter Cory Kerbs.

It looked as though the Tigers may be in for a long day until Lowe and his defense began to struggle in the fifth and the hits finally began to fall for the Tigers. "That was a big inning for us to get back in the game," Foster said.

But the tie didn't last long as the Cardinals offense continued to do what it had done all day, taking advantage of Nevada's mistakes. A leadoff single by Bret Miller that was followed by a walk to Dylan Stadter quickly translated into two more runs to change the complexion and momentum of the game once again in the top of the sixth inning.

An error by Johnson at first ultimately led to the final insurance run for the Cardinals in the top of the seventh inning as he saw a hard grounder of the bat of Shawn Rhodes go off his glove and into right field. Rhodes eventually went on to score, giving the Cardinals a 10-7 lead heading into the home half of the seventh and final inning.

"It's huge," Foster said of Johnson's error. "That's what we talked about with the kids. There were about 20 things we could have done differently."

With just three outs left to come up with a come-from-behind victory, a sense of urgency began to set in on the Tigers' bench as the home half of the seventh inning began. It looked as though that sense of urgency might pay off as Kohlten Wilson led off the inning with an infield single to give the Tigers a leadoff baserunner for just the second time in the game. The first time it happened was the six-run fifth inning that kept the Tigers alive in the contest.

Things looked even more promising when Wilson came around to score on Taylor Scotten's two-run home run to right, but the Cardinals and reliever Trenton Perry quickly recovered, holding on for the one-run victory. "They're very well-coached," Foster said of the opposition. "They don't have many lapses on the defensive side."

That statement proved true throughout the contest as the Tigers finished with just one hit per inning outside of the fifth when they had six and the sixth when they notched two and the Cardinals didn't commit an error.

With that loss, the Tigers fell to 6-5 on the year and are set to head back out on the road to take on the Bulldogs of El Dorado Springs tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.

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