Tigers fall to Cubs in tourney title game

CARTHAGE, Mo. –– The Nevada Tigers fell to the Monett Cubs 5-1 in the championship game of the 43rd annual Bill O’Dell Tournament.

“We came up short against a quality team today,” Nevada head coach Danny Penn said of the Friday contest. “Any time you play against an opponent of Monett’s quality you know you have to bring your ‘A’ game, and unfortunately, we didn’t do that. Once again, we had a couple of mistakes (dropped pop-ups) that you have a hard time overcoming against a high-quality opponent.”

The Tigers led 1-0 after two innings of play. Penn said an unearned run in the top of third provided a spark to the Cubs’ offense.

“That kind of got them off and rolling,” Penn noted. “They put together good at-bats and quickly elevated Tyler (Ketterman’s) pitch count. I thought Tyler did a good job of competing and challenging hitters. At the same time, in those crucial counts (2-2, 3-1, 3-2,) I think he tried to be a little too perfect rather than pitching to contact and trusting his defense to pick him up.”

Penn continued: “As our defense improves and begins making a higher percentage of plays, our pitchers will have an easier time of trusting them. The two go hand-in-hand. If a pitcher trusts his defense, he doesn’t feel he has to do quite as much on his own.”

Nevada collected just four hits, as Carthage starting pitcher Jonathan Hawkins held the Tiger bats in check.

“Offensively, we struggled,” Penn said. “But I give a lot of credit to Hawkins. He did a great job of starting our batters with first-pitch strikes, and then opening up the rest of his repertoire to get our hitters off-balance.”

Penn continued: “Overall, I’m happy with our performance in the tourney. Getting in three games in four days was good for us from the perspective of getting into a rhythm of playing. Especially after the 12-day break between the first and second games of our season (due to rainouts). With three more games this week, I look for us to hopefully build off our tournament performance and continue to improve.”