The College Heights Christian Cougars fell 4-0 to the visiting Exeter Tigers during their Ozark 7 Conference opener on Tuesday at historic Joe Becker Stadium.
Exeter pushed across two runs in the first and one each in the second and fourth, while College Heights did not get a hit against Exeter sophomore pitcher Wyatt Lemons until the fourth when College Heights junior shortstop Kelton Welch reached on an infield single.
The damage on the scoreboard could have been significantly worse for College Heights since Exeter left 12 runners on base — two in the first, two in the second, three in the fourth, two in the fifth, one in the sixth, and two in the seventh.
The Cougars finished with three hits against Lemons, who recorded nine strikeouts during his complete game shutout performance. Josh Anderson reached on an infield single in the sixth and Bo Sitton, one of only two seniors on the College Heights roster, hit a two-out double to right in the seventh.
Anderson pitched three scoreless innings of relief after coming on for senior Ben Thomas and the sophomore picked up four strikeouts to help maintain Exeter’s lead at four runs.
“Our pitchers did a good job of keeping us in it,” College Heights coach Phillip Jordan said. “Our defense, we didn’t come to play today. We have to do better. Against good teams, you’ve got to make plays and we did not. Credit to Exeter. They took advantage of our mistakes and won a baseball game.
“Lemons did a great job keeping us off-balance. He was in the zone. He was confident. We knew he was going to throw a lot of junk, he did, and we struggled. It’s just confidence. Our guys are thinking too much and we’re just at a point when we’ve got to settle down and play baseball instead of thinking about not making mistakes.”
Exeter’s Cason Antle and Joseph Hatfield each worked two-out walks against Thomas in the first, then Lemons and Levi Gautney made College Heights pay a 2-0 deficit with consecutive RBI singles.
Exeter worked the bases loaded in the second with a Kason Nelson infield single wedged in between two College Heights errors, but the Cougars limited it to a single run after left fielder Philip Thompson forced out an Exeter runner at third because he was slow to start on a ball that he thought might have been caught by Thompson and Thomas struck out Hatfield.
An error, an infield single, and two walks in the fourth produced a 4-0 Exeter advantage.
College Heights, 1-2 overall and 0-1 Ozark 7, returns to action Friday at home against the Ash Grove Pirates, who are ranked 10th in the Class 2 preseason poll from the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association.
“We’re young and still learning who we are,” Jordan said. “We’ve still got a lot of baseball left to play. Hopefully, we can learn from our mistakes and build on what we’re doing well and start winning some games.”
