Nixa took advantage of several miscues in the field by shorthanded Joplin before pulling away late for a 13-5 win in Central Ozark Conference action on Thursday.
Nixa (14-1, 3-0 COC) scored three early runs to take the advantage before Joplin (4-10, 1-2 COC) rallied to tie the game at 3s by the end of the third inning. Nixa answered back with three more runs in the fourth to regain the momentum before adding two runs in the fifth and five more in the seventh on the way to the conference win.
In total, Joplin committed five errors in the loss, with five of Nixa’s 13 runs being unearned.
“We had some guys in some unaccustomed positions and some guys making their first varsity start,” Joplin coach Kyle Wolf said. “But, at the end of the day, baseball is baseball and we talked about that after the game. You still have to catch it, you still have to throw it and you still have to hit it. We had opportunities to make plays early and not give up some runs, so hopefully that is a learning experience for those guys involved—when you have a routine play to make, you have to make it.
“I hate that the game got away from us at the end with the grand slam because I thought for six innings, we did some good things. We competed well, and given the circumstances, it would have been easy for us to go out there and lay down. I thought we competed well, played hard and did some things we could build on. We just have to stop taking one step forward and two steps back.”
Ethan Taylor earned the win for Nixa after allowing four runs on five hits, two walks and seven strikeouts in five innings.
Alex Isbell took the loss for Joplin after surrendering eight runs, three earned, on seven hits, two walks and three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
“I thought Alex threw really well against a very good hitting team,” Wolf said. “Those guys have put up a lot of runs against some really good pitchers. I thought Alex competed in the zone well and gave us an opportunity.”
Nixa scored an unearned run in the top of the first after Rylan Michel reached on an error before being driven to third on a double to left by Caeden Cloud. Michel scored later on a sacrifice fly by Jackson Edwards.
Nixa went up 3-0 in the second inning after an unearned run came home on an RBI double from Gehrig Eoff, who moved to third on the throw home before scoring in the next at-bat on a groundout from Collin Ussery.
Joplin rallied in the bottom of the second after a run scored on an infield hit from Braxon Gough to trim the deficit to 3-1.
In the next inning, Joplin plated a pair of runs to tie the game. Layten Copher, in his second game back from injury, roped a ball to the gap in left-center to drive home a run.
“Layten did a very good job of staying within himself and getting the barrel to the baseball,” Wolf said. “He is capable of spraying line drives around the field for doubles and triples. … That was fun to see.”
Two batters later, Jackson Queen singled to right-center with two outs to bring home the run and tie the game at 3-3.
A pair of Joplin errors early in the top of the fifth set Nixa up for what turned out to be a three-run inning. With a runner on third and one out, Nixa used an RBI single from Wyatt Vincent before an RBI ground-rule double by Michel pushed the lead to 5-3. Nixa added a two-out run when Edwards singled past third base to make the score 6-3.
Nixa added a run on a Joplin error before scoring on a wild pitch later in the inning to go up 8-3.
Joplin added a run on a wild pitch in the last of the fifth to cut the lead to four, 8-4, before Nixa added five runs in the seventh highlighted by a grand slam by Edwards.
Copher added another RBI double in the bottom of the seventh to wrap Joplin’s scoring.
Michel had two hits, three runs scored and an RBI, while Edwards had two hits, including a grand slam, to go alone with six RBI.
Byler Reither had three hits and scored three runs for Joplin, while Copher doubled twice to go along with two RBI and a run scored.
THROWBACK
Joplin hosts a throwback day against Pittsburg, Kansas, at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Joe Becker Stadium to wrap the city’s sesquicentennial celebration. The Eagles will be wearing Joplin Miners uniforms, with the Dragons decked out in Pittsburg Coal Diggers uniforms.
“It’s a cool day,” Wolf said. “Even though we are the home team, we are playing at Joe Becker and it feels like a different place. With all of the festivities going on, it will be a cool day. If you don’t have much going on, get out to the ballpark because there will be a lot of baseball.”
