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Tigers fall to McDonald County on Senior Night, 6-2
A seventh-inning collapse spelled doom for the Nevada Tigers on Senior Night Thursday evening at Lyons Stadium — dropping a 6-2 decision to Big 8 Conference foe McDonald County Mustangs.
McDonald County went on top 1-0 in the fourth, with the Mustangs plating a run on a Noah Cheaney wild pitch.
The Tigers then struck back in the sixth, courtesy of Grant Miller’s run-scoring single, knotting the contest at 1-apiece.
Miller, who replaced Cheaney on the hill in the sixth, found himself in a major jam in the seventh — loading the bases with no outs.
From there, things unraveled for Nevada, with McDonald County’s five-run frame punctuated by Josh Parsons’ RBI-single, with a second run scoring on an outfield error.
Nevada threatened in the home-half of the seventh, as senior Jayden Ast’s two-out RBI-single trimmed the deficit to 6-2. On the play, however, senior Jonah Brus was gunned down attempting to advance to third, for the contest’s final out.
“It’s just a situation where our base-runners have to know the situation,” said Nevada head coach Danny Penn.
‘We have to have that runner score. But right there, that’s a situation where he has to be smart, and we can’t commit the third out there to end the game — when his run was not the tying or game-winning run. Just have to have smarter baseball sense.”
Penn expressed displeasure with a play in the top of the seventh that led to McDonald County increasing their advantage from 4-1 to 6-1.
“We allowed the leadoff runner to get on with a walk,” noted Penn. “Then, unfortunately, a series of events that led to them scoring multiple runs that inning, and kind of putting the game away.”
Added Penn: “There was a bad umpiring call, but definitely not something that cost us the game. If we make the plays outside of that, we’re still right in the game, with the opportunity to win it in the bottom of the seventh.”
Said Penn of the play that resulted in the Mustangs stretching their lead to five: “He hit it off the top of his ankle, and it rolled down his foot. And I think it was clear to just about everybody but the umpires. The kid was hobbling while he was at first base.”
“That’s a foul ball, and if we come back and finish that batter, that could have gotten us out of the inning (trailing 4-1),” Penn said. “Definitely don’t want to blame the umpires, but that’s a situation where the game was radically altered by that decision.”
Penn added that he was thrilled with Cheaney’s performance, as the junior allowed an unearned run, while fanning four across five innings of work.
The loss moves Nevada to 3-16, while the Tigers wrap Big 8 West division-play at 2-4 overall.