Chaffee gets revenge on Scott Central 12-6

CHAFFEE -- They weren't going to let the Scott County Central Braves slip up on them this time.

Fueled by their loss to the Braves last season, the Chaffee Red Devils withstood a furious Scott Central rally to win their eighth game of the year on Tuesday, 12-6.

"It was the same situation last year," Chaffee junior Alex Davie said. "We were up by a lot and hit the cruise control button and they shot us down and (we) ended up losing last year."

Bryan Freed hit a walk-off triple as the Braves clipped Chaffee 7-6 in nine innings a season ago.

"We didn't want that to happen this year," said Davie.

The Red Devils got an early start to their revenge game pushing across five runs in the first two innings and then two more in the fourth to go up 7-0.

"It was definitely a revenge game for Chaffee," Scott Central coach Matt Limbaugh said. "They said that from the very beginning of the game that those Chaffee kids have been wanting this for awhile. They came out right from the get-go and proved they did."

Behind a solid outing from Davie, who sat down the Braves hitters in consecutive order the first four innings, it looked as if Chaffee was going to breeze through the Braves at that point.

But, a five-run barrage by Scott Central in the fifth inning put some doubt in the Red Devils' plans.

Starting with a double from Scott Central's Dustin Johnson which was followed by singles from Kamryn Johnson and Tyler Masters, No. 9 hitter Blake Pobst worked a bases loaded walk to put the Braves on the board for the first time.

Moving to the top of the order, Bryan Freed knocked a two-run double to left-centerfield, Nathan Holland added another two runs on a two RBI single.

The Braves sliced Chaffee's lead to two, 7-5.

"You give the guys credit for trying to make the comeback," Limbaugh said. "You look at that as a positive but, for some reason we can't jump out to a good first few innings. We're starting the fourth, fifth, sixth innings. You can't expect to do that and be a good ball club."

Although Scott Central peppered six hits throughout the fifth, they were helped by a few mental-lapses by the Chaffee defense according to Red Devil coach Brian Horrell.

"The inning where they got all the runs, we just had a few mental lapses," he said. "I thought we could have got out of it and there were a few opportunities where we could have got out of the inning and we didn't take advantage of them.

"You give a good team like Scott County extra outs, they're going to take advantage of them and that's what they did."

Scott Central cut their two-run deficit in half during the top of the sixth when Kamryn Johnson eventually scored on a fielder's choice. Kamryn Johnson hit a single up the middle to lead off the inning and end Davie's day on the mound.

The Chaffee left-hander threw five innings and gave up all six runs on six hits all in the fifth inning.

"I thought he threw the ball exceptionally well," Horrell said about Davie. "They were hitting the ball but we were making plays behind him. The inning he had trouble he forgot to cover first base twice as a pitcher. I'm not 100 percent sure we would have got the outs but there were a couple opportunities where we could have got out of the inning."

"We had a few mental mistakes -- some from myself," Davie admitted. "It's contagious when things like that happen. But, we just had to fight through it and not let it get to you too bad. Luckily, we came out and put some more runs on the board."

But, the left-hander did spark Chaffee's biggest inning of the day when he stroked a one-hopper to the centerfield fence for a double in the bottom of the sixth. Trevor Cannon ended Scott Central starter Josh Boese's day on the mound with an RBI single that scored Davie.

Mental mistakes didn't elude the Braves either as they too missed their opportunity to pull off another Red Devil upset. Scott Central committed six errors on the day.

"We were happy to be 2-0 but we know we're not where we need to be," Limbaugh said. "A lot of mental mistakes cost us today and you can't make that many mistakes and expect to win a ball game."

Four more runs would eventually cross home plate for the Red Devils making the chances of another SCC comeback highly unlikely.

"(Scott Central) lit up the scoreboard and we had a ball game on our hands," Horrell said. "I was glad to see us finally get the offense going again and pull this one out."

Reliever Andrew Dooley shut the book on the Braves in the top of the seventh giving the Red Devils their much-wanted revenge.

"Some of our kids really wanted to get another shot at them after last year," said Horrell. "We knew they had just about everybody back like us so we was expecting a pretty tough ball game. I was just glad that we got re-focused and started swinging the bats again."

Scott Central 000 051 0 -- 6

Chaffee 320 205 x -- 12

WP -- Alex Davie. LP -- Josh Boese. 2B -- (S) Dustin Johnson, Bryan Freed; (C) Cody Payne, Davie.