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Portageville baseball team rallies late, takes down East Prairie 4-3 in extra innings
EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. — Portageville High School struggled to get things going early against East Prairie on Thursday, but with timely hitting late in the game, came away with a 4-3 road win in nine innings.
The Bulldogs were down 3-0 going into the sixth inning and after three hits in a row, first baseman Alex Riddle approached the plate.
Riddle hit a sharp ball to centerfielder Derez Tipler, who misplayed the ball and let it roll past him. One run scored on the error, which tied the contest up 3-3.
Portageville head coach Tyler Trover said that before the start of the inning, he told his players that they weren’t executing enough.
“It’s a game of execution,” Trover said. “Three singles in a row and we didn’t get it done with those other two batters, so now you got a kid coming up in a big spot, and he put the barrel on the baseball, and we took advantage of a mistake that they made. We’re blessed in that sense, but at the same time that’s just part of execution on both sides.”
Riddle would not be done in the sixth, though, as he also made an impact in the top of the ninth. He singled to start off the inning, and after a successful sacrifice bunt from second baseman Bailey Cook advanced Riddle into scoring position, catcher Bub Lance finished off the inning.
Lance singled on a line drive to right field, which scored Jayden Milan — who courtesy ran for Riddle — giving the Bulldogs a 4-3 advantage.
“First of all, great approach by Alex to hit that ball to the left side,” Trover said. “Fortunately, that kid kind of ate him up over there. He could have very easily made that play and then it’s like dad-gum that’s the start of the inning.
“Great execution all the way down the line, great piece of hitting there, great bunt to get him over, great job to get him in and that’s just good baseball. That’s the kind of baseball that we’ve been trying to talk these guys into playing all year. The thing about it is, is that last year’s group was a much different group. You know, it was much easier to just kind of sit-back and let things develop with our offense, and this team’s a little different.”
Portageville would hang on to that one-run lead into the bottom of the inning, but not without excitement from East Prairie (7-5).
With Jared Crafton on the mound for the Bulldogs; he would hit the lead-off man, Harrison Moore, and after retiring the next two Eagles, walked Trey Cade.
Trover though, turned to Riddle to get the final out, and after just three pitches got Jack Scruggs to pop-out to the third baseman for a Portageville win.
Overall, Trover said that this win was huge for his team, especially with the postseason quickly approaching. His Bulldogs have won each meeting with fellow Class 3, District 1 teams.
“We’ve been blessed enough throughout the season to beat everybody in the district, so that puts us in great position going into the seed meeting,” Trover said. “It’s like I told the kids, it doesn’t matter if we’ve beaten everybody right now when you get to playoff time, everybody’s 0-0.
“We were blessed enough to win that thing last year, so we just have to understand we have to feed off that confidence of being in that situation, but at the same time we have to understand this is a different group and it’s a much different grind this year. This district has a lot of parity.”
Portageville (12-5) defeated Scott City 13-0 in the district championship game last season.
Portageville 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 — 4 10 1
East Prairie 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 3 5 2
WP — Jared Craftron. LP — Carson Aycock. 2B — Conner Barnam (P), Harrison Moore (EP). HR — Derez Tipler (EP). Multiple hitters: Portageville — Bub Lance 2-5, Conner Barnam 3-4, Alex Riddle 3-4; East Prairie — Harrison Moore 2-3.
