NEOSHO, Mo. — The host Neosho Wildcats dug themselves a 7-2 hole Thursday in their Central Ozark Conference game against the visiting Branson Pirates.
Branson plated four runs in the second and three in the fifth, then Neosho rallied back with three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh during a 7-6 win for Branson at Roy B. Shaver Field within the Marion Sports Complex.
The Wildcats had tying run Quenton Hughes on second when Kael Smith flied out to left to end the game.
Nixa scored four runs in the second Tuesday during a 6-1 loss at home for Neosho, and the second inning Thursday mirrored the one two days earlier in that Branson scored four runs on two hits and three walks.
“Not the outcome that we wanted,” Neosho coach Bo Helsel said. “The kids competed today after we got down big early. For the most part this year, we have limited the big innings. Today, we didn’t. They got a four spot, and we probably could have kept it to a two spot. Then they got a three spot and probably could have kept it to one, but that’s baseball sometimes.
“I thought the kids competed well and they worked hard. They stayed in it. We got our bats going after that third inning. Drake (Swift) came in and got a big hit to get us out of the funk and from there on we hit pretty well. That kid (Branson junior pitcher Hunter Jones) is pretty good. He’s sitting 85, probably some of the hardest we’ve seen all year. We’ll try and take some positives from it, but it definitely hurts.”
After being retired in order in the first and second, Neosho junior Drake Swift connected on the Wildcats’ first hit of the game with a single to left and he stole second, but the home team remained scoreless as Jones picked up a pair of strikeouts to retire the side.
With one down in the fourth, Neosho cut a four-run deficit in half after a Wyatt Shadwick ground rule double and an Austin Rodriguez RBI double.
The Pirates answered with three runs on five hits and one Neosho error in the fifth against Rodriguez, who spelled Neosho starter Carter Fenske in relief for one inning.
In the sixth, Rodriguez hit a leadoff single, Hughes reached on a single, and pinch hitter Hudson Williams worked a four-pitch walk to load the bases with Wildcats and just one out. Fenske, hitting between Rodriguez and Hughes, was denied a potential extra-base hit by a diving catch from Branson center fielder Collin Ross.
Swift took one for the team with the bases loaded and Eli Zar contributed a sacrifice fly.
Shadwick led off the seventh with a first-pitch single against Branson side-armed reliever Kyler Lankton and scored on Hughes’ two-out RBI single to draw the Wildcats to 7-6.
Hughes stole second and nearly had another 90 feet to advance were it not for center fielder Ross backing up a throw from catcher Aaron Strohm to nobody at the bag at second.
Smith, who delivered a walk-off single earlier this season in the ninth inning of a 4-3 win against Strafford for the Roy B. Shaver Classic title, just missed on a game-tying hit Thursday.
“It was nice that Shaddy stepped up to hit the first pitch for a hit,” Helsel said. “It got us rolling. Again, it is tough to see from that arm angle. You never see it, especially all the righties coming from behind them. But, for the most part, we competed like we had from the fourth inning on.
“We’ve been coming out a little flat. We’ve got to fix that. I don’t know if it’s our preparation or what it is, but we’ve got to come out and hit a little better early in innings and put some pressure on teams like they did to us. That’s usually a good recipe to get a win.”
In Branson’s four-run inning, Strohm hit a sacrifice fly and Ross a two-run single as the Pirates’ junior center fielder impacted the game both offensively and defensively.
Sam Adkisson, Jones, and Strohm connected with RBI singles in the fifth.
Jones earned the win and Fenske took the loss. Hughes pitched scoreless sixth and seventh in relief to give the Wildcats a chance late.
Hughes led Neosho with three hits and Rodriguez and Shadwick each had two.
Neosho dropped to 13-11 overall and 1-6 COC, and the Wildcats return home Monday for a contest against Hollister.
The Wildcats have two weeks remaining in the regular season and they would like to enter the postseason playing their best baseball. They are 1-7 over their last eight games, including two losses against state-ranked Nixa and one against state-ranked Willard.
“We’ll take the positives from (Thursday),” Helsel said. “We competed, the bats were much better, defense was pretty good, a couple too many walks, but Branson hit the ball so give them credit. We have three games next week. We play Hollister on Monday, so come out and see if we can get it fixed then.”
