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Opportunistic Kelly slides past Oran
BENTON -- Kelly maximized its scoring opportunities while Oran sputtered.
That was the difference as the Hawks dealt the Eagles a 4-0 road loss on Tuesday.
Two-out hits by the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in the lineup, Spencer Ayers and Jordan Felter, were the big blows for the Hawks, who scored all of their runs in the fourth inning.
In a scoreless tie going into the bottom of the fourth, Kelly's leadoff hitter Kendal Deason reached on an error.
Oran outfielder Craig Friga made a nice sliding catch in shallow center field for the first out and the next batter was retired on a flyout to right field, with Deason still standing at first base.
Kelly's next hitter, starter and winning pitcher Dallas Tew, helped his cause by extending the inning with a line single to center, advancing Deason to second. With a two-strike count on Blake Hooper, Chase Seyer hit Hooper to load the bases and bring Ayers to the plate.
Ayers lined a two-strike pitch to left-centerfield to score Deason for a 1-0 lead, leaving the bases jammed for Jordan Felter.
Felter promptly crushed a deep drive to straightaway center field for a three-
run triple and a 4-0 advantage.
"You've got to have everybody step in and do their part and today our No. 8 and No. 9 hitters came up and got the big hits we needed," said Kelly coach Cory Johnson. "We haven't had those all year long and, hopefully, that will break the ice for us."
Oran, with baserunners in six of the seven innings, had its chances but stranded nine.
The Eagles blew a golden opportunity in the top of the sixth, loading the bases with no outs. Austin Dumey reached on an error, then advanced to third on consecutive singles by Kody Campbell and Seyer.
But, Tew struck out the next two hitters and retired the third on a popout to second.
"He (Tew) hasn't thrown in those kinds of situations much, so I wanted to see how he'd react," said Johnson, of his sophomore hurler. "He did an excellent job of spotting pitches where we called for them and our defense made the plays for us."
Tew pitched shutout ball for six innings, allowing seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.
Caleb Daughhetee closed out the win with a hitless seventh inning with two strikeouts.
Said Oran coach Mitch Wood, "We're just not doing a very good job of putting the bat on the ball when we need to. Baseball is all about timing and right now we're not getting those timely hits."
Seyer, who took the loss, went four innings allowing four runs, all unearned, on five hits with two strikeouts, no walks and one hit batsman. Trevor Irwin pitched two scoreless innings with one strikeout and one base on balls.
Oran outhit Kelly, seven to six, with Irwin and Seyer collecting two hits apiece. Daughhetee led Kelly with a 2-for-3 day.
The victory lifted Kelly back to .500 for the season at 7-7, while Oran fell to 9-5.
While both teams have struggled at times this season, each coach has an eye on the upcoming district tournaments.
Said Johnson, "We've got two weeks left before districts and we're just trying to come out and play the style of baseball we're capable of playing."
Wood said, "We're not playing very well right now but we've got a few good tests the next couple of weeks and that's usually how we get ready for the district tournament."
The Eagles face a rigorous schedule of five games in four days starting today at 4 p.m. with a make-up game against host Charleston.
Kelly entertains Woodland on Thursday at 4 p.m.