Game 1
Carthage 4, Aurora 1
AURORA, Mo. — The Carthage Tigers split a two-game set on the opening day of the Roy B Shaver Classic Tournament, Thursday, beating the Aurora Houn Dawgs 4-1, before losing the late game 4-3 against the Strafford Indians.
In game one, Carson Kinder (1-0, 1.17 ERA) took the mound for the Tigers. Kinder ran into trouble early allowing one run on two hits in the first inning. Kinder worked himself out of trouble in the second inducing a bases-loaded pop-up to end the inning.
Nolan Brown (1-0, 0.00 ERA) relieved Kinder on the mound in the third and proceeded to pitch four innings of one-hit baseball striking out six and working around four walks, but more importantly, kept the Tigers in the game, allowing no runs.
“(I was) really proud of the way Nolan battled on the mound today,” said Carthage Head Coach Kevin Burgi. “He did a great job commanding the zone with multiple pitches and keeping our opponent off-balanced.”
The Tigers went into the seventh inning down a run but had been putting together great at-bats all game.
With the Tigers down to their last two outs, Burgi called on Kayleb York to pinch-hit. York laced a 2-1 pitch to left field to get the tying run on. Langston Morgan drew a full-count walk to move York into scoring position and Bradyn Tate followed with a base hit to left to score York on a close play at the plate and tie the game 1-1. Morgan advanced to third on and Tate to second on the throw and the Tigers had the go-ahead run at third with only one out. Two batters later, Mason Adams hit a ground ball to score Morgan and Tate. Adams then stole second and scored on a Ty Perry single to left putting the Tigers up 4-1.
“I thought we battled at the plate all day and hit balls hard but didn’t have much to show for it,” Burgi said. “Coach (Drew) Bridges did a very good job making sure that hitters stayed within their approach and we had some big hits late. Kayleb York had a huge pinch hit to start off the seventh inning. Brayden Tate did a great job coming up with a clutch hit.”
In the bottom half of the seventh inning, Tate was set to be the next pitcher. After a few warm-up tosses, Tate noticed something felt off with his arm and wasn’t able to continue. Burgi then turned to Brady Carlton to secure the save – and he did just that – striking out the first batter he faced and inducing a ground ball to second, before putting the finishing touches on the Tiger comeback with a swinging strikeout to end the game 4-1.
Game 2
Carthage 3, Strafford 4
In game two, Burgi turned to the hard-throwing Landon Bland (1-0, 0.88 ERA) to face Strafford. Bland set the tone early pitching with a lead after Carthage scored a run in the top of the first inning when Perry scored on a passed ball.
Bland breezed through three and a third innings allowing no hits and striking out five and Bland looked like he would again cruise through the fourth inning. With one out and a ground ball to second baseman Mason Adams, a momentary bobble by Adams gave Strafford a base runner. Strafford ended up plating two runs to tie the game before Bland was able to induce a ground out to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, Carthage jumped back in the lead 3-2 on a sacrifice fly from Morgan, scoring York, who earlier in the inning pinch-ran for Zach Hoenshell after Hoenshell reached on an error to start the inning.
Bland was back out for the fifth inning but issued a walk to the first batter. Burgi went to his bullpen and brought in Broddie Cole to relieve Bland. After a sacrifice bunt and a fielder’s choice, a single to center tied the game at 3-3.
The sixth and seventh innings were quiet for both teams with nobody able to push a run across. The game went into extra innings for Carthage’s first extra baseball for the season.
Carthage went down quietly one, two three in their half of the inning.
In the Strafford bottom half, a leadoff walk turned out to be the deciding factor. Again, Strafford turned to the small ball, sacrificing the runner to second to move him into scoring position. The next batter grounded out to first which moved the runner to third with two outs. On the next pitch, a single to left scored the game-winning run for Strafford.
“We had two guys step up on the mound and do some really good things,” added Burgi. “We competed hard but in the end, came up short.”
Despite the doubleheader split, the Tigers outhit their opponents on the day 16-7 and the pitching staff still boasts a 1.09 ERA overall.
Carthage moves to 5-1 on the season and faces Hillcrest at 6 p.m. Friday in Aurora for their third game of the Shaver Classic.
