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Portageville squeaks by Bloomfield
MALDEN -- It wasn't without it's share of drama, but the Portageville Bulldogs closed out it's portion of Malden Invitational pool play with a win.
Taking on Bloomfield in their second game on Friday, the Bulldogs forced the Wildcats to strand the tying run at third in the bottom of the seventh inning as they held on for the 6-5 decision.
"Bloomfield is a good team," Portageville head coach Lee Wallace said. "(People) don't give them enough credit thinking they haven't played, but they're a scrappy bunch and they're just going to get better.
"Real happy to get a win and real happy for my young guys to come in and fill in and get a 'W' out of it."
Early on the Bulldogs (10-4) looked ready to cruise to the win as starting pitcher Hunter Cook allowed only one hit hit through four innings. That hit came on the first pitch of the game and he went on to retire 12 straight batters, striking out five.
With his team still holding a slim 3-0 lead, however, Cook was removed to start the fifth in an attempt to rest him for next week. It didn't take the Wildcats (9-3) long after that to play catchup.
With Cook out of the game, Bloomfield struck in the bottom of the fifth, plating their first run on a line drive single from Tim Hector. A bases-loaded single from Tim Fox brought in another run and a walk to Noah Vandiver followed to force in the tying run 3-3.
"We had plans on getting Cook more or less a bullpen today and he stretched it into four innings," Wallace said. "We were pleased with his pitch count and wanted to get him out. We have bigger fish to fry next week. We're getting to where we're kind of looking down the road to a big district conference game.
"Not to take anything away from the tournament, but it doesn't have the implications that the games next week do."
Portageville put together on final offensive outburst to start the sixth inning and entered the home half of the frame up 6-3. After back-to-back single put runners on second and third with two outs, Derrick Priggel hit a shot off the pitcher's glove that scored one run off the hit and another on an errant throw to first.
Jon Kellams capped the three-run rally with a grounder past short to plate Priggel and give the Bulldogs a 6-3 advantage.
Bloomfield answered later that innings with a pair of runs to enter the bottom of the seventh trailing 6-5. Two straight fly outs left the Wildcats down to their final chance, but they caught a break when a dropped third strike on the final out allowed Alex Gibbs to safely reach first base.
Gibbs promptly stole second and a hit batter put the winning run on first. With two strikes to the No. 8 hitter Gibbs stole third, leaving the tying run 90 feet from extending the game.
Before Gibbs could find a way home, a final swinging strike ended the Wildcats' chance at a comeback.
While both of Gibbs steals came with close plays at the bag that could have ended the game, Bloomfield head coach Tyler Trover liked his team's chances of capitalizing on a potential Bulldog mistake.
"It's one of those situations where you're down at the bottom of your order," Trover said. "Our bottom of the order had struggled a little bit today and I was just trying to be aggressive and maybe you hope for them to throw one away or something like that.
"Fortunately we were able to get in there, (at third), but just couldn't get it done after that."
Portgaeville outhit the Wildcats 11-7 with Kellams, Chance Howard and Tyler Daugherty contributed a pair of singles each. Howard also drew two walks to reach in all four plate appearances.
The Wildcats were led by leadoff hitter Jacob Hector, who went 3 for 4 with a run driven in and a run scored.
On Bloomfield trying to create runs on the base paths that final inning, Wallace echoed Trover's thoughts.
"They have the right idea," Wallace said. "Rather than just sit around and wait for the clutch hit you have to make something happen. We didn't close the door. That's something we have to work on if we're going to win down the road in big situations."
Both teams finished pool play 1-1 with Portageville falling to Doniphan 11-4 earlier in the day and the Wildcats beating the Dons 7-6.
Portageville 011 013 0 - 6
Bloomfield 000 032 0 - 5
WP -- Derrick Priggel. LP -- Noah Vandiver. Multiple hitters: (P) Jon Kellams 2-4, Chance Howard 2-2, Tyler Daugherty 2-4; (B) Jacob Hector 3-4. 2B -- (P) Hunter Jackson.