Malden wins own Tournament

MALDEN, Mo. - The Malden Green Wave’s chances of defending its title looked to be in serious jeopardy after it needed 13 innings to dispose of Bernie 4-3 in its opening game at its own nine-team baseball tournament Friday morning. 

But strong pitching performances kept coming for the Green Wave even after they deployed pitchers Mason Brown and Ethan Bader in their marathon opener.

Dalton Headley pitched the first three innings against New Madrid County Central Friday night before action was halted due to heavy rain. Headley returned to pitch the final three innings Saturday afternoon as Malden locked up a spot in the gold pool with a 13-3 six-inning victory against New Madrid County Central. 

Malden lefty Dee Triplett and right-hander Tye Miller ate up the remainder of the innings in the Green Wave’s gold bracket pool play games against Cooter and Portageville. 

Triplett allowed two runs in a six-inning start and Miller surrendered one run in a one-inning relief appearance to help Malden beat Cooter 6-3 in its first gold bracket pool play game Saturday night. 

Miller returned to the hill a few hours later and pitched a complete game shutout in the final game of the tournament that ended about 12:15 a.m. Sunday morning. Malden won the nightcap against Portageville 4-0. 

“We’ve got some pitching and had to have everyone perform like they did this weekend,” Malden coach Tim Harmon said. “We needed our guys to go deep in games. With a pitch count in place you have to have six or seven pitchers to win this tournament  Both teams played well in the final game and the Portageville guy pitched his tail off as well.”

Portageville, which needed to allow two runs or less and secure a victory against Malden to win a tiebreaker and claim the title, kept their championship hopes alive for most of the final game. 

Portageville starting pitcher Kile Adams allowed only one run in his first five innings of work. 

Malden took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Brown reached base on an infield error, stole second and third, and scored from third base when Bader grounded out. 

The Green Wave got additional breathing room when they tacked on three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Bader, who finished with a team-high three RBIs, set the final score with a two-out 2 RBI hit in the bottom of the sixth inning.

“Bader had a good game,” Harmon said. “He’s really swung the bat well in the clutch and I hope he continues to do so.”

Miller allowed just four hits in seven innings of work. He struck out three Portageville hitters and walked one. 

Malden improves to 11-4 with its 4-0 tournament performance. 

“This is two years in a row we’ve won this,” Harmon said. “We’ve won this tournament several times but this year was probably tougher than some of the other years because every game was tough for us this year.”

Portageville (9-4) beat Caruthersville 11-1 and Scott City 13-5 Friday to win its preliminary pool and qualify for the gold pool.

“When you look at the overall week we had beating Kelly in a district game Tuesday, South Pemiscot in a conference game Thursday and winning two district games Friday we did what we needed to do,” Portageville coach Tyler Trover said. “We used some guys Saturday that hadn’t thrown a whole lot so far this season. We got a great effort from Kile. I also liked our approach at the plate in our first game against Treat, who is a really good pitcher for Cooter. Tye Miller just had our number in the last game. 

“But the biggest thing is our margin for error is next to nothing,” Trover added. “We’ve got to be on top of everything all the time to be really good. We saw flashes of that but then we saw flashes of taking a few steps backward. We’ve got to make sure and correct that heading into next week.”

Cooter, which had to play both of its preliminary pool play games immediately before the start of championship pool play after its games were rained out Friday, placed second in the gold pool. 

Cooter beat Senath-Hornersville 11-0 and Bloomfield 8-2 in its preliminary pool play games Saturday afternoon. Cooter then knocked off Portageville 9-5 after suffering a loss to Malden. 

Cooter and Portageville were tied 4-4 after six innings before Cooter won the final inning 5-1. 

Dawson Treat pitched all seven innings for Cooter against Portageville. 

“Our kids battled,” Cooter coach David Mathis said of playing four straight games. “They are tired and worn out. We weren’t going to play four games, but I thought our pitching was built for it. I’m proud of my kids for how they performed today. It takes a lot of toughness playing four in a row. I’ve never done it or seen it before. But my gosh we battled our tails off. 

Cooter currently supports a record of 8-2 and is ranked No. 6 in the latest Class 1 state poll.  

“We try to get better for the end,” Mathis said. “That’s all we prepare for. This is a great tournament with very good coaches and we were just lucky to win a few games.”

See all tournament scores below:

CHAMPIONSHIP POOL PLAY SCORES

Gold Pool

Malden 6, Cooter 3

Cooter 9, Portageville 5

Malden 4, Portageville 0

Silver Pool

Senath-Hornersville vs. NMCC (postponed)

Senath-Hornersville vs. Scott City (postponed)

Scott City vs. NMCC (postponed)

Bronze Pool

Caruthersville 6, Bernie 3

Caruthersville 11, Bloomfield 10

Bernie 11, Bloomfield 1

PRELIMINARY POOL PLAY SCORES

Pool A

Malden 4, Bernie 3 (13 Innings)

NMCC 8, Bernie 7

Malden 14, NMCC 4

Pool B

Portageville 13, Scott City 5

Scott City 15, Caruthersville 5

Portageville 11, Caruthersville 1

Pool C

Senath-Hornersville 6, Bloomfield 4

Cooter 11, Senath-Hornersville 0

Cooter 8, Bloomfield 2