Nevada Tigers baseball falls in tournament play

CARTHAGE -- The Nevada Tigers baseball team suffered its first loss of the 2014 season in the opening game of the Bill O'Dell Tournament Monday, at Carl Lewton Stadium. That loss came at the hands of the Webb City Cardinals, who held the Tigers offense in check on their way to an 8-2 victory.

"The offense hit a lot of balls hard," Tigers head coach Danny Penn said. "Unfortunately, a lot of them went right at fielders. We had a couple of opportunities early to score some runs, but we hit a couple of sharp line-outs right at people and hit into two double-plays that killed potential rallies.

Webb City Cardinal and future Crowder College Roughrider Cade Crouch held the Tigers to four hits and worked around five walks over 6 2/3 innings. Crouch also hit a solo home run to help the Cardinals improve to 7-3 for the season.

"Grant (Wolfe) had a hard time keeping the ball down," Penn said. "Crouch hit a solo home run in the second. Otherwise, they pieced together hits and hit the ball well, in general.

"This was one of those games where you tip your hat to their pitcher and say, 'They were better than we were today.'"

Nevada scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut its deficit to 5-2, only to see the Cardinals score a run in the sixth and complete the scoring with two runs in the top of the seventh.

With the loss, the Tigers fell to 2-1 on the season and are to return to Carthage at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, to take on the Monett Cubs.

Also at Carthage Monday, Mount Vernon edged the Carl Junction Bulldogs, 5-4, in nine innings, and the Carthage Tigers outscored Seneca, 10-6, in the third pool game of the day.