While not pounding out hits like the it did against Aurora Monday night, the Neosho American Legion baseball team got plenty of timely hitting in Wednesday’s two-game sweep over Cassville Post 119 in District 15 action at Roy B. Shaver Stadium.
The Night-hawks won 5-3 in the opener, and 4-1 in the second game.
Neosho hiked its league mark to 5-3, and are now 14-8 on the season. The Nighthawks busted out for three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning in the opener to pull out the victory.
Trailing 3-2, Neosho tied the game on Drew Miller’s RBI single. With the bases loaded, Anthony Hendrix singled up the middle to drive in a run and a throwing error on the play allowed another run to score to make it 5-3.
Neosho starter Dakotah Smith (7-0) shut down Cassville (14-8, 4-3) over the final two innings, including escaping a two-on, no-out situation in the top of the seventh by retiring three straight.
“Dakotah had great stuff today, his fastball had a lot of movement,” Neosho coach Eddie Crupper said of his starter. “Every start he has made, he won. He is smart. He threw the ball where he wanted to. He kept his composure on the mound.”
Cassville scored three runs in the top of the third on an RBI single by Travis Northern. Other runs scored were on an error and a wild pitch. The Nighthawks made it 3-2 on RBI singles by Anthony Westfield and Kyle Dickens in the bottom half of the inning.
“We had a sloppy inning, but we had good starting pitching,” Cassville coach Jeremy Marple said. “We seemed to have base runners scattered all night.”
In the nightcap, Neosho had some big hits early on and the defense lifted the team on a few occasions to get out of jams.
Three of the team’s four runs scored in the first, started by a Blake Henry homer. Silas Bohannon had an RBI single and an error led to another run. An error in the fourth led to Neosho’s final run.
Cassville’s lone tally came in the fourth when Cody Cantwell had an RBI single. In that inning, left fielder Tyler Marion threw to Westfield at the plate to nail a runner with the bases loaded.
Post 119 also had a runner thrown out stealing in the second inning and hit into a double play in the third inning.
Neosho, Mo. —
