Scott City wins slugfest with East Prairie, 13-11

Thursday, April 20, 2006

EAST PRAIRIE - The East Prairie Eagles baseball team lost to the visiting Scott City Rams on Wednesday afternoon, 13-11.

Mental and physical errors haunted the Eagles all game long. East Prairie committed four errors in the contest and had some mental breakdowns in regards to covering bases and making fundamental throws, that allowed the Rams to escape with the win.

"The top of the fourth inning is when one little bunt back to the pitcher," said East Prairie coach Gary Scott, "led to four runs. Made a mental error over at first base by not covering the base. We booted a ball which scored two runs and a guy hits a two-run homer, next thing you know they scored four runs."

East Prairie jumped out in front of the Rams in the bottom of the second. Tyler Branam began the inning with a single. William O'Guin followed with a double. Caleb Hatton hit into a fielder's choice and runners were on first and third with one out.

Scott City's starting pitcher Andy Stephens was working on the next Eagle batter, when he threw to first and had Hatton leaning the wrong way. Hatton immediately took off for second base and the Ram first baseman threw the baseball to second base.

During the throw from first to second base, O'Guin at third took off for home. O'Guin scored before the throw from second made it to home.

The Eagles scored their second run of the game in the second on a throwing error from the Ram catcher. Hatton advanced to third base on a wild pitch, the throw from the catcher to third was wild and went into right field. Hatton jogged home and East Prairie led 2-0 after two innings of action.

Scott City answered with two runs of their own in the top of the third. Ryan Eskew bunted back to East Prairie's starting pitcher Hunter Jones with one out, Jones fielded the ball cleanly but the Eagles first baseman wondered off too far from the bag and could not recover in time to receive the throw from Jones. Eskew was safe at second and then proceeded to steal second.

After the No. 9 hitter Shae Simmons singled for the Rams, Cody Carlyle and Blake Dirnberger each singled to drive in runners. After three innings of action, the game was tied 2-2.

The top of the fourth was a disastrous inning for East Prairie. Ryan Modglin single to start off the third for the Rams. Modglin made it all the way to third base with one out.

Josh Henson stung a pitch to Tyler Branam of the Eagles at third base, Branam went home to try and get the lead runner in Modglin. Call it good base running or poor execution on the part of the Eagles, but Modglin eventually beat the run down and made it safely to back to third base.

Jones of East Prairie struckout the next Ram hitter and the Eagles were one out away from getting out of the inning unscathed

Simmons of Scott City topped a ball down to shortstop where O'Guin fielded cleanly but threw the ball in the dirt and past the first baseman for an error. Two runs scored on the error and the Rams led 4-2.

Carlyle sent a Jones offering over the left wall for a 2-run home run and Scott City increased the lead to 6-2.

"Cody has been one of our top hitters all year long," said Umfleet. "We had him in the No. 3 spot for awhile, but he struggled a couple of games and we moved him back up. He is seeing the ball well again. We just hope to keep him going."

After Blake Dirnberger was hit by a pitch for the Rams, Curtis Hall hit one to O'Guin at short, who promptly made another errant throw that allowed Dirnberger to score. In total, the Rams scored five runs in the inning and led 7-2 heading into the bottom of the fourth.

"Ugly win is always better than a pretty loss," said Umfleet. "Got to hand it to East Prairie, they came out and never quit. We jumped up and they kept fighting back. Got to hand it to them, they did a good job."

The Eagles answered back with a single tally in their half of the fourth. Hatton tripled with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Perry Lucas. The Rams led 7-3 heading into the fifth inning.

East Prairie kept charging back and cut the Rams lead to two runs in the bottom of the fifth, by plating two runs. Jones reached base for the Eagles on an error by Scott City with nobody out.

Jones stole second and scored on an RBI single by Zach Secoy. Branam drove in Secoy with an RBI groundout. The Eagles trailed 7-5 after five innings. Scott City scored three runs in the top of the thanks to an Eagle error and a two-run single by Stephens. The Rams led 10-5 heading into the bottom of the sixth.

Trailing 10-5, East Prairie exploded with five runs in the inning to tie the contest. The big blows came for Jones and Secoy. Jones hit a two-run double for the Eagles and Secoy followed with a 2-run homer over the left field wall.

Reeling, Scott City strapped it up and came back with three runs in the top of the seventh to seal the win.

The Rams did all their damage in the seventh with two outs. Simmons singled to begin the rally. Up next, Carlyle hit a Texas-leaguer between second and right field.

Trying to make the inning ending catch, Secoy in left dove but came up short and the ball bounded away behind the fielder.

Simmons took advantage of the play and scored all the way from first. Carlyle scored on a throwing error and pinch hitter Matt Rich came through for Scott City with an RBI double.

The Eagles scored a run in the bottom of the seventh, but it was not enough as the Rams prevailed 13-11.

"We didn't field the ball real well today," said Scott. "But the guys never quit today. They showed a lot of heart and a lot of emotion. Got to give credit to my guys for hanging in there and not quitting."

Carlyle led the charge for the Rams going 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Simmons had a good afternoon going 2-3 for Scott City.

Hatton was a monster at the plate for East Prairie going 3-4 with four runs scored. Hatton was a home run away from hitting for the cycle. Secoy went 2

-3 with 3 RBIs and Lucas was a perfect 3-3 with also 3 RBIs for the Eagles.

Scott City (5-5) will host Bell City on Friday in a portion of the Chaffee Tournament.

East Prairie (5-5) will host Century, Ill. on Friday at 3:30 p.m. in pool play for the Mississippi County Wood Bat Tournament.

Scott City0025033-13103
East Prairie0201251-11124

WP - Shae Simmons

LP - Tyler Branam

HR - Cody Carlyle (SC), Zach Secoy (EP).

3B - Caleb Hatton (EP)

2B - Matt Backfish (SC), William O' Guin (EP), Hatton (EP), Hunter Jones (EP).

Multiple hitters - Scott City: Carlyle 3-4, Simmons 2-3. East Prairie: Perry Lucas 3-3, Hatton 3-4, Secoy 2-3.

Records - Scott City 5-5, East Prairie 5-5.

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