Coffeyville outlasts Vipers

After a three-hour game, Girard/Arma 13s head coach James Scoles was a little disappointed.
Not necessarily in his team but more the other aspects of the game as the Vipers fell 15-8 to Coffeyville in their second game of the Babe Ruth District 5 tournament in Cherokee Friday night.
“We had them and the score does not even begin to tell the story,” Scholes said. “We just gave up a lot of walks and the umpires really controlled the game but that is how it goes.”
The Vipers mounted an 8-3 lead after the top of the fourth inning but, pitching and, according to Scholes, the strike zone, started to take its toll on Girard/Arma.
In the fifth inning, Viper pitching gave up five walks as Coffeyville scored six runs to take a 10-8 lead.
“A lot of those were full-count walks,” Scholes said. “They were very close walks.”
The Vipers started off with two runs in the first inning after Austin DeBusk hit a two-run single then DeBusk came up big again in the third with a two-run double as Girard/Arma scored three more runs in the inning.
After the Vipers scored three more runs in the third and fourth inning, they seemed to have the game in control.
That was until the fifth when Coffeyville picked up six runs.
Coffeyville added another five runs in the sixth to close out the game.
“We had them but it was just a matter of the umpires dictated the game,” Scholes said. “It is very sad and even Coffeyville’s coaches were upset with the calls and you can’t do that in a game like this. It is not fair to the kids.”
The Vipers ran through a total of five pitchers in the seven-inning game.
“We ran into some pitching problems,” Scholes said. “It was a snowball effect and it was hard for the kids to come back.”
Scholes said that, defensively, the Vipers made solid plays.
“We had some really great plays defensively,” Scholes said. “We played lights-out ball for four innings but we just gave it to them after that.”
According to Scholes, the strike zone seemed to get smaller in the later innings of the game.
“Both teams had a very hard time hitting the strike zone but we came to hit,” Scholes said. “We wanted to prove that we have good athletes and we could have taken the walks but we wanted to hit.”
Now, the Vipers will take on Cherokee/Columbus at noon today. With a win, Girard/Arma will play at 4 p.m. in Cherokee.

Babe Ruth baseball
District 5 tournament
at Cherokee
Coffeyville 15, Girard/Arma 8
Girard/Arma    231 200 0 — 8  8 3
Coffeyville        003 165 x — 15 7 2
Girard/Arma: Nicholas George, Austin DeBusk (3), Nathan George (4), Anthony Scholes (5), Trenton Stolte (5) and Austin DeBusk, Cody Grilz (3), Nicholas George (4). Coffeyville: Gibbs and  Rogers. 2B — Girard/Arma: Austin DeBusk, Cody Grilz (2). Coffeyville: Gibbs.