The first foray for this group of Neosho Nightriders into the American Legion state playoffs was a little tough.

Backed by a strong hitting attack, the West Plains Merchants beat Neosho 12-5 in opening round play in the American Legion “AA” Zone 3 Tournament at Nixa High School Thursday evening.

The loss meant that Neosho would have to rest for 30 minutes and turn around and play again against none other than the Nevada Red Sox.

The Red Sox, which had won the four previous meetings against the Nightriders, romped ahead to a 7-1 lead and were in control.

Something clicked and Neosho made a feverish rally, but came up short, losing 9-7, as the season ended in the double-elimination tournament for Neosho.

The comeback, despite the prospects of the season ending, was something positive to end the season on.

“We showed some guts, huh?” asked Neosho coach Todd Moffett. “We talked a lot about believing we can do that — believing we can win those types of games, those 2-1 games or the 4-2 games. We talk about having guts to step up to the plate and get the hit, or get their body down to stop a ground ball and making the out. We talk a lot about it and sometimes we get it done. We did a good job in the second game of getting the hits when we needed them to get back in the game.

“In the first game we just played like a bunch of 10 year olds.”

The tournament opened with the West Plains Merchants scoring four runs on only two hits in the first inning, setting the tone in what was an error-filled game for the Nightriders.

Daultyn Grisham had an RBI single and Bobby Reid added a two-run single for West Plains.

Reid scored thanks to a pair of errors, as Neosho committed four of its 11 errors in the game.

And yes, that wasn’t a misprint. 11 errors.

West Plains held a 5-0 lead after two innings, before Neosho broke up the shutout.
Jared Brown reached on a error and scored on Corey Crandall’s RBI double to the gap in left field.

A fifth Neosho error in the bottom half of the inning, on a pickoff attempt, allowed Isaac Collins to move to third base after a walk. Collins then scored on a sacrifice pop fly to third, a play where no Neosho player was around home covering and Collins scored rather easily, making it 6-1.

The Nightriders tacked on a pair of runs in the sixth inning to help chip away at what was then a 7-1 deficit. Crandall doubled again, while J.D. Jackson walked. Anthony Hendrix delivered an RBI single, while Jackson scored on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt at third base, as the ball went under the fence.

West Plains, with its lead down to four runs, scored five runs in the seventh inning.
Grisham had the big hit, a two-run single. An error, wild pitch, fielder’s choice and a groundout combined to allow the other three runs to score.

Jackson’s two-run single in the bottom of the seventh capped the scoring, accounting for the 12-5 final.

Neosho vs. Nevada

Facing the Red Sox, a team that had just to a “AA” team for the first time all season, Neosho hung tight with them.

Matt Link and Brown had RBI singles in top of the second inning to make it a 2-2 game.

A six-run bottom of the second essentially took the sails out of Neosho. Nevada had an RBI triple from Jonathan Butler, an RBI groundout by Rannon Claypool, an RBI triple by Tyler Dobson and a two-run single by Ron Johnson.

From that point, Neosho played better, despite trailing 8-2.

In the fourth inning, a pair of base runners — a single by Jacob Patterson and a walk to Jake Barnes — was enough for Nevada to switch from Ross Wolfe on the mound to Taylor Scotten. 

Scotten allowed both inherited runners to score when Jacob Rickman had a two-run single with two outs, making it 8-4.

The team would trade runs to make it 9-5. A  walk to Scotten, followed by another error on a pickoff play, moved a runner to third base. Ryan Austin then lofted a fly ball to drive in Scotten.

Hendrix doubled to open the fifth inning and scored on Lenny Neal’s groundout, making it 9-5, with Neosho still down by four runs.

Neosho came even closer in the sixth inning. 

Link singled to open the inning and scored on an interesting play. With the hit-and-run on, Rickman hit a single to the outfield and Link went to third base. Rickman got caught off first base and was picked off, but during that rundown, Link dashed home and scored, making it 9-6.

In the top of the seventh — Neosho was the visitor in this game — Hendrix doubled again to open the inning. He moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Neal’s RBI single with two outs. However, Nevada brought in Austin, their ace, and a ground ball ended the game and the season for Neosho.