The final Southwest Conference game, in any sport, hosted at Neosho ended with a win for the Black-and-Gold Thursday night.

The Wildcat baseball team, backed by the arm and bat of sophomore Kyle Dickens, rallied to pull out a 13-9 victory over the visiting Carthage Tigers on a windy and warm Thursday at Roy B. Shaver Stadium in Southwest Conference action.

Dickens hit three home runs on the day, including a pair of two-run homers, and picked up the win on the mound for the Wildcats, who capped off its conference home schedule.

“We hit the ball pretty dang good today,” said Dickens, who saw his home run total double in one game. “This week in practice we have worked hard in the cages. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but we have worked extra hard this week on hitting.”

The win for Neosho likely derails the Southwest Conference hopes for Carthage, which entered the game tied for first place in the the SWC with Webb City. Now, with two losses, the Tigers have to win out against the eight-time defending conference champions Webb City and Nevada and hope for a split of the title.

For Neosho, the role of spoiler was a nice one, though it took some work.

The Tigers (6-13 overall, 4-2 in SWC) jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings of play.
Carthage scored four runs in the first inning on only one hit, taking advance of three walks, two batters getting hit by a pitch and a very costly error on Neosho’s part. With two outs and two runners on a misplayed flyball hit by Caleb Fierro led to two runs for Carthage. Tadd Wagner had an RBI single and a wild pitch led to another run.

The Tigers stranded the bases full when Dickens, coming in on relief, got a pop fly to end the inning.

“I was just trying to get out of the inning and work from there,” said Dickens. “When we came back out it was a clean slate.”

In the second inning, Stephen Poston singled and scored on Anthony Eck’s second home run of the year, making it 6-0.

Dickens, though not on the hook for the loss, did his best to spur a rally.

After Drew Miller was hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the second inning, Dickens hit the first of his three home runs, this one to left field.

Austin Paul singled and scored on Anthony Westfield’s single later in the inning and Neosho had cut the lead in half, 6-3.

In the third inning, Paul gave the Wildcats (7-12, 2-4) the lead when he hit a grand slam to the gap in left-center field. His hit followed a double by Miller, Dickens getting hit by a pitch and a single by Scott Wilson.

The lead, however, was brief.

The Tigers scored three runs, all off homers, in the fourth inning. Poston hit a solo homer to left field to tie the game at 7-7. After a bloop double by Fierro, Kyle Wicklund
hit a two-run homer to center field, making it 9-7.

Dickens tied the game at 9-9 when he hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning, driving in Ty Anderson, who singled. Dickens hit this home run to right field,
going with an outside pitch on a 1-2 count.

Neosho went up 11-9 in the fifth inning. Paul singled, his third in as many at-bats and Westfield reached on an error with one out to put runners on. Joe Hembree then doubled to the gap in left-center field, making it 11-9. Carter Marion grounded out to drive in Hembree, making it 12-9.

Dickens hit a solo home run to left field to cap the scoring at 13-9.

The Tigers had a couple of chances late, but couldn’t connect on a big hit. In the fifth inning, Dalton Cossey singled to right field that moved Beau Tommey to third base with two outs, but on the throw home, Cossey attempted to take second and was gunned out by Koty Dowell.

“That was one of the biggest plays of the game,” said Neosho coach Eddie Crupper.
“Koty stepped up and made that play.”

In the seventh inning, Tommey and Cossey reached base off Westfield with two outs and the heart of the order coming up for the Tigers. However, Westfield got a popfly to end the game.

Neosho plays today at Webb City, starting at 4:30 p.m. at Barnes Field.