April 15, 2016
Bookend rallies spark Oran to 15-4 win over SCC
Oran rode a hot start while Scott County Central found themselves scrambling to catch up. In the end, Oran's fast start was met by a big end during Oran's comfortable 15-4 win in six innings.
By Chris Pobst ~ Standard Democrat
SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Oran Eagles were spotted seven runs before Scott County Central stepped into the batter's box. Needless to say, the start worked differently for each team.
The Eagles rode the hot start while the Braves found themselves scrambling to catch up. In the end, Oran's fast start was met by a big end and the Eagles fell on the comfortable side of a 15-4 decision in six innings against Scott Central Thursday at Scott County Central High School.
"It's always good to jump out ahead of somebody," Oran coach Joe Bickings said after his team's Scott-Mississippi Conference win. "The bad thing for us is we didn't continue to do that. It took us until the sixth inning to get more runs there...As the game went along, I think we got a little more comfortable and were able to hit the ball better."
Oran sprayed 15 hits against three different Braves pitchers, but got to SCC's starter the most and in a hurry.
Colton Winter allowed five of his first six batters he faced to reach safely. He walked three, hit one and gave up an RBI hit to Preston Hahn. With the bases loaded and two runs already scored with one out recorded, SCC coach Matt Limbaugh lifted Winter for Jeffery Porter.
"Colton's threw well for us these first few games and he's really been our go-to guy," SCC coach Matt Limbaugh said. "All we've asked him to do is to throw strikes, but today he just didn't have it and that's baseball sometimes."
Porter gave up two runs and the biggest hit of the inning to Drew Reischman, who cleared the bases with a 3-run double to give Oran its 7-0 lead. The senior, who recently signed with Three Rivers College for basketball, went the next 4 2/3 innings giving up five runs (three earned) on 10 hits and one walk. He also struck out two.
"I thought for just his second-ever pitching performance in his life did very well against a good-hitting Oran team," Limbaugh said. "Jeff made a lot of big pitches that should have been outs and our defense king of let us down today. They made some good plays to not make it so bad, but made some plays that really hurt us and killed momentum. You did yourself a big hole like that every run counts. Each run they scored after that was just another dagger in the heart."
But after that breakout first half-inning, things settled. The Braves started chipping away as only a team faced with that kind of deficit can do. A double from Gavin Pobst gave SCC its first run in the bottom half of the opening frame, but Pobst was caught at third trying to stretch that double into a single.
Two defensive errors by SCC led to two runs for Oran in the third. The Eagles went ahead 9-1 after ground balls were mishandled at second and short. SCC ended up with four errors on the game and all four cost them runs.
"They could have easily ducked their heads and we could have gotten out of here quick and they still battled," Limbaugh said. "The two guys Oran threw were quality guys with two good pitches. I thought we came out and tried to make it a ball game."
Scott Central (3-2, 1-2 Scott-Mississippi Conference) took it's biggest chunk out of Oran's lead in the bottom of the third when Overfield gave up three walks in four batters. A fielder's choice off the bat of Pobst gave SCC two runs.
A single by Brody Ditto was followed by a bases-loaded walk to Kioki Johnson and a single from Jordan Crone to pull the Braves within five. But a little momentum was lost when SCC stranded the bases loaded forgoing a chance to slice into Oran's lead even more.
"A play here and there and you're making Oran sweat a little bit," Limbaugh said. "Not many teams can say they do that...We're still working on our plate approach and there seemed to be a lot of third-strike looks. That's nothing you need, especially with runner's on base. We're taking a lot of pitches and we just have to be more aggressive at the plate and ready to go."
Before Crone's run-scoring single, Bickings lifted starter Blake Overfield for Tanner McVay. And although McVay gave up the hit to give SCC it's four runs, he closed the book on the Braves' offense from that point on.
Overfield allowed four runs on two hits and six walks while striking out four in his first varsity start.
"With four games this week and four games next week, we're searching for some pitching," Bickings said. "(Overfield) gave us 2 2/3 which is decent, but it kind of got away from him in the third. The only time he's been pitching for us is when he throws late in games for us and just for an inning or two. He's probably not used to throwing that many pitches. He did a fairly decent job."
McVay saw three hitters over the minimum during his 3 1/3 innings pitched giving up three hits and walking one but didn't allow another runner to reach second.
"We try to preach limit the damage when you can and stop the bleeding," Bickings said. "Overfield got behind and had to serve a few up and you can't do that against any team whatsoever. We have to do a better job of pumping strikes...Tanner came in and we kind of shut them down after that. He was throwing strikes. I preach strikes, strikes, strikes and if they hit it hopefully it's right at us."
Oran (5-6, 2-2) struck back quickly with a run in the top of the fourth after SCC's third error of the day.
A scoreless fifth inning gave way to Oran's final flurry that eventually took its opponent out. The Eagles tagged Pobst, who entered to pitch for Porter to start the sixth, with five runs on four hits. Hahn had an RBI single and McVay put the mercy-rule in effect with a single to left that scored two.
Oran 702 105 -- 15 14 0
SCC 103 000 -- 4 5 4
WP -- Tanner McVay. LP -- Colton Winter. Multiple hitters: (O) Drew Reischman 4-4, Preston Hahn 3-4, Clay Sauceda 2-4, Tanner McVay 2-4, Austin Eftink 2-3. 2B: (O) Reischman; (SCC) Gavin Pobst.
sports@standard-democrat.com
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