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PITTSBURG —
Pittsburg Senior Babe Ruth finished Pool B play 1-1 during the second day of the Pittsburg American Legion Wood Bat Tournament, defeating Carthage 3-2 and losing to Neosho 7-4 on Friday.
“First day, we did very well,” Pittsburg head coach Gary Kratz said. “Our first game we played against a very good Carthage hitting team and we came out and gave up two runs the first inning. We came back and won 3-2, totally on a great pitching performance by Drew Dawson. He went the whole distance and if he had any walks, it might have been one. I mean, he always stayed ahead of the count and we made good plays on defense.
“The way that we scored was that we got a runner on, bunted him over, they had a few walks and we had a hit in there. We played very good fundamental baseball. We were always in the game.”
Carthage jumped all over Pittsburg in the bottom of the first — Keaton Giett led off with a single and scored on an Ethan Wiggin single and throwing error as Wiggin found himself trapped in a rundown between first and second. Miles Goade plated Wiggin on a single. However, Dawson pitched his way out of the jam, leaving two runners on base and then only allowed three more hits over a complete game victory.
Dawson allowed two runs on seven hits and one Pittsburg error. He struck out two, both in the fourth, and relied on his defense behind him. Keaton Bolinger, Luke Marquardt and Austin Kratz turned a 4-6-3 double play in the third and center fielder Colton Gilbert caught a fly ball smashed into deep left center by Carthage catcher Kyle Lee. Gilbert accounted for five flyouts in the game.
Pittsburg scored its three runs with a little small ball and some good eyesight at the plate in the fourth.
Gilbert showed his speed offensively when he legged out an infield single to start the rally and moved to second on a sacrifice by Tully Yoakum. Kratz walked and Dawson legged out another infield single to load the bases. Gilbert scored on a bases loaded walk by Drew Casey, Kratz scored on a wild pitch and Dawson scored on a bases loaded walk by Marquardt.
“We talked about this tournament being about small ball,” Coach Kratz said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re hitting in the order, we’re going to be bunting people over, hit-and-run, bunt-and-run, whatever we can do. We will do that more as we go as we’re playing quality teams.”
Pittsburg Senior Babe Ruth finished Pool B play 1-1 during the second day of the Pittsburg American Legion Wood Bat Tournament, defeating Carthage 3-2 and losing to Neosho 7-4 on Friday.
“First day, we did very well,” Pittsburg head coach Gary Kratz said. “Our first game we played against a very good Carthage hitting team and we came out and gave up two runs the first inning. We came back and won 3-2, totally on a great pitching performance by Drew Dawson. He went the whole distance and if he had any walks, it might have been one. I mean, he always stayed ahead of the count and we made good plays on defense.
“The way that we scored was that we got a runner on, bunted him over, they had a few walks and we had a hit in there. We played very good fundamental baseball. We were always in the game.”
Carthage jumped all over Pittsburg in the bottom of the first — Keaton Giett led off with a single and scored on an Ethan Wiggin single and throwing error as Wiggin found himself trapped in a rundown between first and second. Miles Goade plated Wiggin on a single. However, Dawson pitched his way out of the jam, leaving two runners on base and then only allowed three more hits over a complete game victory.
Dawson allowed two runs on seven hits and one Pittsburg error. He struck out two, both in the fourth, and relied on his defense behind him. Keaton Bolinger, Luke Marquardt and Austin Kratz turned a 4-6-3 double play in the third and center fielder Colton Gilbert caught a fly ball smashed into deep left center by Carthage catcher Kyle Lee. Gilbert accounted for five flyouts in the game.
Pittsburg scored its three runs with a little small ball and some good eyesight at the plate in the fourth.
Gilbert showed his speed offensively when he legged out an infield single to start the rally and moved to second on a sacrifice by Tully Yoakum. Kratz walked and Dawson legged out another infield single to load the bases. Gilbert scored on a bases loaded walk by Drew Casey, Kratz scored on a wild pitch and Dawson scored on a bases loaded walk by Marquardt.
“We talked about this tournament being about small ball,” Coach Kratz said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re hitting in the order, we’re going to be bunting people over, hit-and-run, bunt-and-run, whatever we can do. We will do that more as we go as we’re playing quality teams.”
Neosho 7, Pittsburg 4
Anthony McNeely gave Pittsburg its first extra-base run-producing hit of the day in the first, scoring Gilbert and Yoakum on a double to left. Gilbert reached on an error and Neosho pitcher Nathan Bankson walked Yoakum.
Neosho trailed 3-0 before scoring two in the third, two in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth, plating seven unanswered runs until Pittsburg scored one in the bottom of the sixth.
Neosho catcher Tyler Marion slammed home three runs on RBI doubles — his RBI double plated Tyler Rathmann in the third and his two-RBI double in the fourth plated Chris Paulus and Bankson.
In addition to its 13 hits, Neosho stole nine bases on Pittsburg pitchers Yoakum and McNeely and catcher Jacob VanLeeuwen — Alex Wise three, Bankson two, Rathmann two and one apiece by Jayce Parmley and Tyler Johnson. Neosho succeeded on 90 percent of its stolen base attempts.
Pittsburg scored its last run on a Nathan Flood RBI single but left two on in the sixth and the bases loaded in the seventh as Neosho reliever Wayde Hartman struck out three Pittsburg batters looking with the game on the line.
“They’re younger but they’re fundamentally sound,” Coach Kratz said of his players. “They just have to keep their heads up when they do make an error. Just like our coaches told them, they’re always in the game no matter what because baseball’s a funny game. If they keep going at it hard, we’ve got a shot because they’re very fundamentally sound.”
Pittsburg Senior Babe Ruth plays Blue Valley West at 10 a.m. today and Pittsburg Post 64 closes out the day with Springfield Kickapoo at 6 p.m., rounding out the third and final day of pool play before Sunday.
Pittsburg American Legion Wood Bat Tournament
Pittsburg Senior Babe Ruth 3, Carthage 2
PSBR 000 300 0 — 3 3 1
CART 200 000 0 — 2 7 0
Drew Dawson and Jacob VanLeeuwen. Zack Overton, Sawyer Shepherd (6) and Kyle Lee. WP: Dawson. LP: Overton. 2B: Keaton Bolinger. HBP: Lee. SH: Tully Yoakum, Drew Casey. LOB: PSBR 4, CART 3.
Neosho 7, Pittsburg 4
NEO 002 221 0 — 7 13 3
PSBR 210 001 0 — 4 5 3
Nathan Bankson, Wayde Hartman (7) and Tyler Marion. Tully Yoakum, Anthony McNeely (6) and Jacob VanLeeuwen. WP: Bankson. LP: Yoakum. SV: Hartman. 2B: Marion 2; McNeely. SB: Alex Wise 3, Bankson 2, Tyler Rathmann 2, Jayce Parmley, Tyler Johnson; Colton Gilbert, Yoakum. CS: Rathmann; Yoakum. SH: Johnson; Luke Marquardt, Austin Kratz. SF: Johnson. LOB: NEO 7, PSBR 8.
Blue Valley West 14, Carthage 1
