Pioneers drop two: Errors hurt at Riverdale tourney
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The Pioneers fell to Mt. Juliet 7-3 Thursday night, survived a scare to down Forrest 14-10 Friday morning, then suffered an 8-6 setback to Lincoln County Friday afternoon. Saturday morning’s contest against Beech was canceled by rain.
“We stepped back defensively in both games (Friday),” WCHS coach Jimmy Walker said. “We played pretty well in the beginning of the game (Friday) morning, then made a few errors. And the first game carried over into the next game — and we just can’t do that.
“We don’t have the kind of pitchers that can go out there and dominate. Our pitchers came out and did their job, though. They threw ground balls and pop-ups, and we’ve just got to be able to make those plays.”
Warren County’s only win of the weekend — Friday morning’s victory over Forrest — looked like a blowout early, but turned into a close contest as errors allowed the Rockets to battle back from a 10-run deficit.
Derek Kennamer got things going for WCHS, singling and scoring on a Glenn Rogers fielder’s choice in the first. Jake Mitchell drove in Matt Brown to give WCHS a 2-0 lead, then Kennamer came back up in the second and belted a two-run homer to expand the Pioneer advantage.
With five runs on five hits in the third inning, the Pioneers took a 12-2 lead in the fourth with two more runs on a pair of hits.
With the game seemingly in hand, Warren County took the opportunity to substitute for several of its veteran players. But the move proved costly, as Forrest posted four runs in the bottom of the fourth on two hits, a pair of wild pitches, two errors and two bases-loaded hit batsmen.
Although WCHS put up another pair of runs in the fifth to stay on top 14-7, Forrest countered with two runs on two hits and three straight errors, and had the potential tying run on deck when Jared Qualls retired the game’s final batter on a fly ball to right.
Qualls came on to relieve Landon Boren, who picked up the win by working the first 3 1/3 innings of the five-frame contest.
Errors and stranded runners continued to haunt the Pioneers against Lincoln County.
After taking a 1-0 lead but leaving the bases loaded in the first, WCHS starter Cody Mitchell gave up a two-run home run to the Falcons’ Brandon Sisk.
Daniel Owens tied the game at 2-2, stealing second and third then scoring on an error, after being hit by a pitch to start the second. Kennamer reached on a bunt single, then scored on a Glenn Rogers base hit to put WCHS on top 3-2. But LCHS countered with four runs on three hits and two errors to go up 6-3 in the bottom of the inning.
Matt Brown reached on an error, stole second and third, then scored on a Jake Mitchell RBI to cut the Pioneers’ deficit to 6-4, but Lincoln County scored its final two runs when Jake Mitchell’s pickoff attempt at third went into left field.
Thursday evening against Mt. Juliet, the Pioneers went up 1-0 when Kennamer tripled and scored in the first, and took a 2-0 lead in the third when Jake Mitchell drove in Brown, who had reached on an error.
Mt. Juliet countered with three runs in the top of the fifth, but Brown was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the inning and scored the tying run on a Mitchell double.
The Golden Bears put the game away in the sixth, however, scoring four runs on three hits, two walks, a hit batsman and a two-run error.
With district games against Riverdale on Tuesday and Blackman on Thursday, Walker said his team has to work hard to correct its miscues in the field.
“We need to play, and we need to practice now, to see what we need to work on,” he said. “We’ve got to go back to the basics, and that’s what we’re going to do.
“We’re going to go back to our drill sequences, taking ground balls and working on our fielding. And we’re going to be working on our hitting a little bit. We had some clutch situations where we could’ve gotten some big hits, and we didn’t.”
Both this week’s games are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Patrick Ramsey Field.