NEOSHO, Mo. — The Neosho Wildcats received a gem from senior pitcher Austin Rodriguez and their bats came alive with four runs in the sixth inning during a 5-1 win over the Mount Vernon Mountaineers on Friday at Roy B. Shaver Field inside the Marion Sports Complex.
Rodriguez allowed one run on two hits and recorded 10 strikeouts and two walks over seven innings, and the Mountaineers jumped out to a 1-0 lead with their only run in the second.
Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly tied it up in the fourth and then the Wildcats put together their big rally with two outs in the sixth.
“He (Rodriguez) was very efficient,” Neosho coach Bo Helsel said. “During his bullpen session on Wednesday we worked on a little adjustment to his curveball trying to get a little more break on it and it worked today. He filled it up and he competed for us. He kept his mind right the whole game and didn’t get any down when they had a couple hits. He grinded for us and one run, you can live with it.”
In the second, Mount Vernon junior Sawyer Anderson worked a walk and stole second, then scored on a Gavin Johnson RBI single to left.
Neosho junior Quenton Hughes reached on a hit by pitch leading off the fourth, stole second, and advanced to third on a Wyatt Shadwick hit before scoring on Rodriguez’s fly out to center.
Shadwick began the two-out rally in the sixth when he reached on an infield single and that was followed by a Rodriguez single, and a Kael Smith walk to load the bases.
Helsel called on sophomore Cade Spiva to pinch-hit and he delivered a two-run single bringing home Shadwick and courtesy runner Hudson Williams.
Carter Fenske worked a walk to load the bases again and Colton Southern then came through with a two-run single to score Smith and Spiva for the 5-1 advantage that proved to be far more than enough runs for the Wildcats to earn the win in the seventh.
“That inning started with two straight outs, so we did all that damage with two outs, which we haven’t been able to do this year,” Helsel said. “I wish we had done that in a couple more innings before that, but you’ll take what you can get. All wins are good wins, and all losses are bad losses. It may not have been the cleanest and best win that I had envisioned for today, but a win is a win.
“Cade Spiva came in in a big spot off the bench and drove in two runs, then Colton Southern followed him up with two more runs so that was important for us especially going into CJ in a few days.
“When runs are at a premium like they have been our last few games, it feels good to get a four-spot up there. Hopefully, that will give our hitters some confidence going into next week.”
The Wildcats improved to 12-4 overall on the season headed into one of their busiest weeks this season.
“We play CJ at CJ (Tuesday), we’re at Willard on Thursday, and then we’re in the Paul Dudley Lebanon Wood Tournament,” Helsel said. “We play Marshfield again, we play Nixa and Lebanon, and then we’ll play one more game against the other side of the tournament. Six games in five days, it will be a grind, but our kids are ready as they’ll ever be, and we’ve just got to hit.”
Neosho approaches last season’s win total of 14 with at least 14 games remaining.
