WEBB CITY, Mo. — The visiting Rock Bridge Bruins demonstrated why they are the fourth-ranked team in Class 6 by the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association during their doubleheader sweep of the host Webb City Cardinals on Saturday at Chuck Barnes Field.
Rock Bridge’s Owen Wise prevailed against Webb City’s Drew Vonder Haar in a classic 1-0 pitchers’ duel to start the day and the Bruins completed 14 innings of shutout baseball Saturday with a 4-0 win in the second game.
Webb City coach Andrew Doennig spent 10-15 minutes on the field after the second game talking alone with Rock Bridge coach Justin Towe about the Bruins’ offensive strategy.
“The thing we learned today is the execution of your offense is very, very important,” Doennig said. “(Rock Bridge) is a team that does what they do in their offense. They bunt, they run and they showed today why they are so good. They’ve won 17 games in a row now, so the execution of their offense was phenomenal. That’s what killed us today. They executed, and we didn’t.
“We just have to find a way. There’s going to be some games where we’re going to be able to hit and there’s going to be some games we may not be able to hit so well, so we’ve got to find a way in those games to be able to bunt guys over, move runners over and steal bases. That’s the thing going forward. We’ve told them getting into the playoffs, you’re not going to win every game 11-1 or 10-1 or whatever, you’re not going to blow people out, so we got to be able to get better at the small ball stuff.”
In Saturday’s second game, Webb City managed three hits against Rock Bridge starter Cade Luetkemeyer — a Vonder Haar double leading off the second, a Kaylor Darnell double leading off the fifth and a Sam Weller single leading off the sixth.
The Cardinals failed to execute with runners in scoring position and less than two outs.
Kenley Hood sacrificed Vonder Haar over 90 feet in the second, but Luetkemeyer induced a pair of flyball outs to retire the side.
Luetkemeyer earned a strikeout and two groundouts in the fifth.
Weller did not have a chance to get into scoring position in the sixth as the Bruins turned a 5-4-3 double play against Cy Darnell.
Rock Bridge relievers Carter Ihler and Brady Davidson came in and earned the last four outs.
The Bruins plated two runs in the second and one in the fourth and sixth, executing small ball during a day when runs were at a premium.
In the second, Dane Gray reached on an error, Cooper Siebuhr got on with a bunt single, and Crew Norden loaded the bases with Bruins on his single.
Gray scored on Cullen Snow’s bloop single to right and the Bruins executed the squeeze for their second run with Siebuhr coming home from third and Ty Thompson making the bunt.
Gray led off the fourth with a double, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on Snow’s sacrifice bunt with two strikes.
Siebuhr reached on an error leading off the sixth, stole both second and third, and closed the scoring when he came home on a Norden single.
Luke Beverlin earned the loss and he allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits with four strikeouts and one walk over 1 1/3 innings, Walker Sweet allowed one run (earned) on one hit with two strikeouts and one walk in 2 2/3 innings, Kaylor Darnell allowed one run (unearned) on two hits over two innings with two strikeouts and one walk, and Gage Chapman pitched a scoreless seventh with one hit allowed and one strikeout.
Webb City’s four pitchers combined for 121 total pitches, while Rock Bridge’s three arms finished at 80 in their seven innings.
Wise fired a two-hitter and Vonder Haar a three-hitter in the opener.
Wise struck out four and walked none, while Vonder Haar allowed one run (unearned) with two strikeouts and one walk over his seven innings.
Wise and Vonder Haar combined for 172 pitches total (Vonder Haar 93, Wise 79).
William Hayes singled in the third and Hood singled leading off the fifth, but the Cardinals set the tone for their day by leaving both Hayes and Hood in scoring position.
Wise supported himself by driving in what turned out to be the game’s only run with a two-out single bringing home Will Kimes in the fourth, only a half-inning after Webb City stranded Hayes at second.
Webb City dropped to 11-9 overall and the Cardinals take a three-game losing streak — starting with their 8-7 loss in Central Ozark Conference play Thursday against sixth-ranked in Class 6 Nixa, a loss that especially hurt since the Cardinals led 7-0 early on and then lost in eight innings — into Tuesday’s home game against conference and county rival Carl Junction.
“We drop a game at Nixa that you feel like you probably should have won,” Doennig said. “Then, coming out here and playing (Rock Bridge). We’ve played them for the past six years and it’s always been tough games, tight games. Today was a tough day to hit. It was 1-0 in the first game and then 4-0 now. It’s tough, but these are character-building days that you try and learn from and get better.”
GAME 1 STATS: Webb City HS (webbcitycardinals.com)
GAME 2 STATS: Webb City HS (webbcitycardinals.com)
