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Crimson and gray walk away winners over rival Lamar
As much as the world has changed since Danny Penn played baseball for Nevada High School, one thing remains the same: how good it feels to beat Lamar.
“This game, if I’m being honest, meant a little more to me,” said Penn, who graduated in 2003 but is now the head coach of the crimson and gray Tigers, who came back to beat their longtime rival 6-4 Thursday afternoon at Lyons Stadium. “It was palpable the fact that this game meant more to both teams. I can’t speak to them, but I know, as a Nevada alum, it got my blood pumping today.”
In only their second game against each other since 2012 (Nevada last squeaked by Lamar in 2019), the motivated foes made every pitch count — and not just because Lamar scored all four of its runs on one of them.
Sophomore southpaw Case Sanderson got the start for NHS (15-2 overall, 4-0 in the Big 8 West) and struck out four of the first seven batters he faced. He also tripled in his first at-bat, eventually scoring on a Blake Pryor sacrifice fly to give Nevada an early one-run lead.
After a scoreless second frame, highlighted by Pryor throwing out a Lamar baserunner trying to steal third base, the Tigers from Barton County got on the board in grand fashion in inning no. 3.
In an act of Case-on-Case crime, Lamar’s Case Tucker crushed a two-out, bases-loaded home run over the right field fence — coincidentally, just a few days after Sanderson hit his first career grand slam.
“If you’re talking to Case, I think he was a little tentative pitching to Tucker. Fell behind 2-0 and then had to challenge him. Credit to their Case, he put a good swing on it and made it hurt,” said Penn, who watched as Sanderson did his best to make up for it in the home half of the third with an infield single that scored Drake Ketterman. “Really proud of how our guys, freshmen through seniors, did a nice job keeping our energy. We started chipping away immediately, tried to get that momentum back on our side.”
After Sanderson retired the side in the top of the fourth, Nevada's offense trimmed the deficit by another run — this time on a base hit by junior Kartman Highley that drove in senior Drake Seaver, who had led off with a triple to left.
Nevada’s defense kept it a one-run game thanks to a couple of highlight-reel plays in the sixth — first when Pryor hopped up from the catcher position to snag a bunt pop-up, then two batters later when he lost his mitt running into the visitor’s dugout railing chasing a fly ball in foul territory. Luckily, Highley hustled over from first base and leaned into enemy territory and hauled it in (the ball, not his teammate’s glove). Then, with the bases loaded, Sanderson got the final batter to ground out to shortstop for a fielder’s choice and the final out.
Penn was so fired up after that, he wished he could have grabbed a bat and stepped into the box.
“That’s a situation where, if I’m a hitter, I’m excited. I’m going to get up there ready to swing it,” said Penn, whose team, it turned out, didn’t need to offer at many pitches.
Ketterman drew a one-out walk on four pitches, forcing Lamar (5-8, 3-3) to replace starter Tucker with a reliever — who proceeded to walk Eli Cheaney, Sanderson, Pryor, and Logan Marquardt, not to mention threw a wild pitch that allowed the go-ahead run to score.
“Having the mental discipline to not chase out of the zone, to make their pitchers throw strikes, and then if they don’t, take our walk and trust the guy behind us to do his job. Just really proud of the maturation we’ve seen in some of our hitters throughout the season,” said Penn, who, after another pitching change by Lamar, got a sacrifice fly out of senior Elijah Nadurata for the team’s sixth and final run.
Sanderson struck out the lead-off batter in the seventh for his ninth K, before being replaced by senior Lane Wilson, who gave up a couple of hits but was able to seal the win with a fielder’s choice and swinging strikeout.
“Just a team that I enjoy coming out on the top end of,” Penn said of Lamar, who isn’t the only area rival on Nevada’s schedule to close out the regular season. “The next three games definitely have a personal connection for our guys, so there shouldn’t be any reason for us to lack motivation. And then it just comes down to finishing the season the right way.”
Nevada heads to El Dorado Springs on Friday and Fort Scott on Monday before returning home Tuesday for Big 8 West foe McDonald County and a chance to lock up the conference crown.