May 07, 2008 01:11 am
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By Ryan Atkinson
ratkinson@Joplinglobe.com
WEBB CITY, Mo. — They may not have done it in sparkling fashion, but the Webb City Cardinals extracted a measure of revenge and, more importantly, won another conference title on Tuesday.
Webb City’s Brett Richardson allowed just three hits and the Cardinals shrugged off five errors to beat the Carthage Tigers 8-4 at Barnes Field. The win avenged two earlier losses to the Tigers and gave the Cardinals their eighth consecutive Southwest Conference title.
“Obviously, it’s always nice to win a conference title,” Webb City coach Shawn Mayes said. “It’s one of our goals when we start the season and it’s nice to win it for the seniors.”
Richardson, one of eight seniors honored on senior night, was perhaps the most consistent performer in a game that saw each team commit five errors. He went seven innings, allowing just two singles in the fourth and one in the seventh. He struck out four and walked two.
“One thing that’s for certain when Brett is on the mound is that he is going to be in the strike zone,” Mayes said. “He threw strikes and got ground balls, but we booted too many of them.”
The same could be said for the Tigers (7-14, 4-3 Southwest).
Carthage starter Kyle Wicklund struck out nine and allowed six hits in five innings of work. But the Tiger defense gave up three unearned runs, including two in a three-run third that put Webb City (18-5, 7-1) up 5-0.
“I told the guys before the game that the team that made the most mistakes was going to lose,” Carthage coach Scott Quinly said. “We won the mistake battle and lost the game.”
Carthage took advantage of two Cardinal miscues in the fourth and scored three times to cut the Webb City lead to 5-3. Caleb Fierro and Dylan Samuelson each lined RBI singles to center and Anthony Eck scored on a Webb City error.
The Tigers had runners on first and second with just one out, but Richardson fanned Jay Powell looking and got Clint Spencer to ground back to the mound to end the threat.
“We got down 5-0, but we battled back and made things interesting,” Quinly said. “We had a chance to put some more runs across the plate, but couldn’t do it.”
Webb City created some breathing room when Austin Lepper lifted a leadoff home run in the bottom of the fifth. Chance Sossamon added a two-run bomb to right-center in the sixth to make it 8-3.
Carthage added a lone run in the bottom of the seventh.
The Cardinals finished the game with nine hits, including the two homers and Darren Aggus’ leadoff triple down the right field line that kick-started their three-run third.
“I thought we swung the bats well,” Mayes said. “Aggus’ triple was big and then I thought Lepper’s home run was really big. That kind of loosened us up and then, obviously, Chance’s two-run homer was nice.”
Aggus was 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored while Sossamon was 2-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored. He was intentionally walked in the fourth. Patrick Drake added two singles for the Cardinals.
Carthage travels to Neosho on Thursday for its final Southwest contest. Webb City wraps up its regular season on Thursday at Carl Junction.
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