LAMAR, Mo. — The Carthage Tiger baseball team, and new head coach Kevin Burgi, started the 2024 spring baseball season off on the right foot with a road win against Diamond in the Lamar Tiger Classic Friday.
“I was very impressed with how well we competed today during game one,” said Burgi. “The (Peyton) Marbough kid threw very well, and our kids did a very good job finding ways to score runs in different ways.”
Senior Brodie Cole started the game for the Tigers and completed three innings, allowing one unearned run on one hit. He struck out four and walked one.
Carthage scored the first run of the game in the bottom half of the first when Junior center fielder Langston Morgan drew a one-out walk, stole second and third, then scored on a wild pitch two batters later.
Diamond’s first run came in the top of the second after a one-out double to center and a subsequent throwing error at third allowed the tying run to score. Cole then struck out the next batter looking and later induced a ground ball to Junior Brady Carlton at shortstop to limit the damage.
In the top of the fourth inning, Senior Eider Lyckman replaced Cole on the mound. Lyckman would give up a one-out single and a double that allowed Diamond runners on second and third. The next hitter tapped a ground ball to second baseman Mason Adams that scored a run, and a bobble by Adams allowed the runner to reach first. With runners at first and third, the runner at first got in a rundown after Lyckman made a pick-off move to first. During the rundown, Diamond’s runner at third took off for home and was able to beat the throw to the plate pushing the lead to 3-1. Junior catcher Zach Hoenshell picked off the runner at second two pitches later and Lyckman struck out the next batter to send Carthage to the bottom of the fourth.
Senior right fielder Ethan Stark drew a walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Kayleb York who advanced to second on an errant throw from the pitcher. Hoenshell then singled on a sharp ground ball past the shortstop to give Carthage runners at first and third with no outs. Hoenshell advanced to second on defensive indifference, and then York scored on a passed ball to the next batter, junior Nolan Brown, who was then hit by the next pitch. Taylor Stevens-Diggs hit a pop-up in between home plate and first base and Diamond’s catcher fielded it. In a heads-up play, Hoenshell tagged up at third when he noticed home was abandoned and made a sprint to the plate sliding just under the tag of the diving catcher to tie the game up at 3-3.
In the fifth inning, Brown replaced Lyckman on the mound and struck out two batters and allowed one walk, before erasing that on a 1-3-6 pickoff.
In the Carthage half of the fifth, singles from Morgan, Stark and Hoenshell pushed the go-ahead run across giving Carthage a 4-3 lead.
Brown came back for the Diamond top of the sixth and ran into some trouble after a swinging strikeout got past Hoenshell and two full-count walks loaded the bases with nobody out. Head coach Kevin Burgi went to his bullpen (or in this case – third base) and called on Senior Bradyn Tate. Tate was electric with the bases loaded and no outs, striking out the first batter he faced, then inducing a bunt pop-out to Hoenshell and a ground ball to Carlton to strand the bases loaded without allowing a run.
“I thought our pitchers did a great job pitching out of jams,” added Burgi. Tate came in and gave us six crucial outs that helped us win.”
After the huge momentum switch sparked by Tate’s pitching, Carthage’s first batter in the sixth, Stevens-Diggs, saw one pitch — a fastball — and immediately deposited a no-doubter over the left field wall for his — and the Tigers — first home run of the season and a 5-3 Carthage lead. Carthage would add two more runs with a Carlton single, and an Adams hustle play to beat out a grounder that scored Carlton. Adams then stole second and third on back-to-back pitches and eventually scored after a wild pitch giving Carthage a 7-3 advantage.
“TSD did a great job coming off the bench and attacking the first pitch he saw. That swing was a huge momentum changer in the game,” Burgi said.
In the Diamond seventh inning, Tate would pick up right where he left off – throwing strikes. A nasty curveball took care of the first batter, a 6-3 groundout followed and a swinging strikeout secured the win for Brown, a save for Tate and a victory for Carthage.
“I told the kids after the game that we won the game on the base paths,” Burgi said. We had a lot of different guys step up and make aggressive plays on the bases.”
The Tigers continue play in the Lamar Classic Saturday with a game at 3:30 p.m. against Lamar and at 6 p.m. against Sarcoxie.
