Stranding 10 base runners will always find a way to haunt any baseball team.
That is exactly what happened to the SEK Crusaders as they fell, 15-1 to the Arlington (Texas) A’s in their opening game of the Premier Baseball Incoming Freshman tournament Wednesday afternoon at the Joplin Sports Complex.
“You just can’t leave that many men on base and expect to win,” said Crusaders’ coach Will Crozier.
Crozier said that the Crusaders had a difficult time against A’s pitching all afternoon.
“They had a solid pitcher and you had to have legitimate hits out of the infield,” Crozier said. “He just kept it low and we just hit ground balls and their fielders didn’t miss.”
Arlington was able to plate nine runners in the fourth inning to go up 15-0 but, the Crusaders got a run back in the bottom of the inning after Girard’s Nathan George scored Southeast’s Jason Reed with an RBI single.
But, the Crusaders went on to leave the bases loaded in the fourth after their lone run scored.
“We had some chances to score after that but we just could not get the runs across,” Crozier said.
The Crusaders also left two runners on in the fifth before the A’s were able to retire the side to close out the game.
Arlington had no errors in the game compared to the Crusaders’ three throwing errors throughout the game.
“They were not an overwhelming team but, we should have been playing them a lot closer,” Crozier said. “The kids were not really mentally ready and they were nervous.”
The SEK Crusaders will face the Sliders Mayer at 11 a.m. today at Seneca (Mo.) High School.
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140. Follow Morning Sun sports at twitter.com/mssports.
JOPLIN, Mo. —
