Big inning lifts Nighthawks

In a matter of minutes, the McDonald County American Legion baseball team saw the highs and the lows of baseball Thursday night.

Playing host to the Neosho Nighthawks in a District 15 doubleheader, Post 392 put together a nice rally in the third inning to tie the game a 2-2. Just moments later, it was all gone — and all gone in a hurry. The Nighthawks scored six runs in the top of the fourth inning and that sparked the team to an 8-2 victory.

Post 392 came back in the nightcap, pulling out a 10-9 victory to salvage a split with Neosho.

The two teams are set to face each other once more this season in a non-district game in early July, prior to the start of the district tournament.

This victory for the Nighthawks improves the team’s mark to 11-8 overall and 3-2 in District 15 standings. The victory, Neosho’s second straight win in league play, follows a win last Wednesday against East Newton.

McDonald County fell to 4-4 in District 15 action with the first game loss, but improved its mark to 14-9 overall with the win in the second game.

In the bottom of the third inning, Post 392 trailed 2-0, but took advantage of some Neosho miscues to tie the game. With one out, Sakel Peak and Bryan Burnett both reached on
back-to-back errors.

Kaleb Schlessman delivered an RBI single to score Peak with the first run of the game. Bo Bergen, the starting pitcher, aided his cause by getting an infield single to load the bases for Post 392. Dakota Acuff then poked a grounder to the right side of the infield, which allowed Burnett to score to tie the game. With two outs, Trevor Speagle walked, but Neosho starter Dakotah Smith got a flyball to end the inning and escape the jam.

From that point, it turned out to be all Neosho.

The top of the fourth inning saw the first five batters reach base safely and score for Neosho. Anthony Hendrix doubled to open the inning and went to third on Jared Brown’s single. Blake Henry had an RBI double. Alex Wise then singled to bring in a pair of runners to make it 5-2 in a hurry. Drew Miller and Anthony Westfield had RBI singles and Kyle Dickens added a run with a fielder’s choice to make it 8-2.

“We battled back to tie the game, but we let some balls get by us and gave them extra bases and then they hit the ball,” McDonald County coach Lee Smith said. “That combination of two things accumulated to them scoring a lot of runs in a hurry.”

He added, “I think we quit competing after that and we need to compete.”

McDonald County struggled to get much going against Neosho’s ace Smith over the remainder of the game. Post 392’s best chance came in the sixth inning when Speagle doubled and went to third base on Drew Pearcy’s single. Smith got two fly balls in a row, including one to Miller, who threw a rocket home to keep a run from coming home on a sacrifice fly. Peak drew a walk to load the bases for Post 392, but a ground ball ended the inning.

In the seventh inning, Wise came in and struck out the side to secure the win for Neosho.
The Nighthawks had chances to pad their lead, but couldn’t get a big hit when the time came. In the fifth inning, the Nighthawks had two runners get to third base, but a double play and a liner ended that scoring threat. Part of the double play was a pickoff play after a ground ball out, in which McDonald County’s Nick Wills got the out at first base and then got the out at home on a rundown when the ball was thrown to him.

In the sixth inning, Miller walked and went to third base, but was left stranded. In fact, the inning ended when Neosho hit into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded. In the seventh inning, Neosho had a runner thrown out at third base.

McDonald County, coming off a two-game sweep over Monett Post 91 earlier this week 16-13 and 8-2, got five innings from Bergen. Pearcy threw the final two innings in relief.

“I think we are playing well,” Neosho coach Eddie Crupper said. “We have different guys in the line-up, but we are hitting the ball well. Drew Miller is a hitting machine. Kyle (Dickens) is starting to hit the ball well. Anthony Westfield is hitting well. It is hard to get through our line-up without giving up runs.”

In the second game, a five-run third inning provided to be the boost Post 392 needed to secure the split with Neosho. The big hit was a two-run single by Schlessman. A two-run error on a grounder hit by Nick Wills and a run-scoring throwing error gave Post 392 its other three runs in the frame.

Peak got the win for Post 392 and Schlessman got the save. Miller was the loser for Neosho.
Neosho plays at 6 p.m. tonight against Nevada in a district game. Post 392 plays Carl Junction at 6 p.m. in the Monett Wood Bat Tournament tonight.