Marksmen no match for Tigers
By Jason Peake
Daily Mail Sports Editor
NEVADA--Two was the magic number for the Nevada High School baseball team on Wednesday.
Nevada scored two runs in each of the five innings in a dominating 10-0 victory over Sherwood at Lyons Stadium.
"At least we're consistent in our run production," Nevada Coach Marty Atnip joked. "Two runs in each inning is pretty good. We got the key hits when we needed them. And we got clutch hits from everyone."
With the lopsided win, the Tigers have now won eight of their last nine games to improve to 13-5 on the season.
"At one point, we were sitting at 5-4," Atnip said. "We've gone on a stretch where our focus has gotten better with each game. And we're getting clutch hitting and quality pitching.
"We have lots of confidence right now," Atnip continued. "We feel like we can compete with anybody."
Nevada junior right-hander Bradey Denney earned the win on the mound. He allowed just one hit and two walks. He hit two and struck out two in five innings of work.
"Bradey was off and on," Atnip said. "He made the quality pitch when he had to, though. He got himself in jams at times, but we always got the big out."
The Tigers got on the board right away in the bottom of the first against Sherwood's Dillon Graef. Lane Ketterman led off with a single and then stole second. After two outs, Alex Payne walked. Cory Kerbs then drove in both runners with an RBI single to right-center for a 2-0 lead.
Nevada extended its lead in the second. Denney walked, Brett Norton singled and then Grant Wolfe hit a sac fly for a 3-0 lead. After Ketterman walked, Easton Mitchell's sac fly produced Nevada's fourth run of the game.
Back-to-back doubles from Payne and Kerbs made it 5-0 in the third. Kerbs drove in Payne with a bloop down the line in right field. Denney later hit a sac fly to give his team a 6-0 lead.
Cole Sanderson hit a sac fly in the fourth to give the Tigers a 7-0 advantage. Ketterman then scored from third on a double steal attempt in which Norton was tagged out at second, making it 8-0.
In the fifth, the Tigers needed two runs to end the game early. They got 'em. Denney hit an RBI triple to left off Zach Matson, scoring Kerbs for a 9-0 lead. The game ended due to the run rule when Norton hit an RBI single into right-center for the 10-0 victory.
The visiting Class 2 Marksmen (10-4) had just one hit, a bloop single by Jacob Atkin in the fifth.
Offensively, Kerbs had three hits and three RBIs for Nevada. Ketterman and Norton had two hits apiece, while Denney drove in two runs. Norton, Wolfe, Mitchell, and Sanderson all drove in one run apiece.
Nevada travels to Fort Scott on Friday and then hosts McDonald County next Tuesday.
Nevada 10, Sherwood 0
SHE 000 0 0 -- 0 1 1
NEV 222 2 2 -- 10 10 2
WP: Denney. LP: Graef.