May 07, 2008 01:12 am
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By Jim Henry
jhenry@joplinglobe.com
CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — St. Mary’s-Colgan broke away in the final two innings for an 18-3 victory over Carl Junction on Tuesday afternoon in a nonconference prep baseball game at the CJHS field.
The Panthers (18-1) led 6-3 after five innings before scoring three runs in the sixth and nine in the seventh to claim their 17th straight victory. All nine seventh-inning runs came after two were out as the Panthers capitalized on four walks and three Bulldog errors.
“I’m sure that wasn’t a typical game for them,” Colgan head coach Mike Watt said. “They broke down defensively, and we were able to take advantage of their mistakes.”
The Bulldogs (17-5) had seven errors and issued seven walks for the game.
“When a team puts the ball in play, you have to play defense,” Bulldogs head coach Flave Darnell said. “We were unable to do that tonight.
“We’ve been pitching real well and playing good defense, but the seven walks and seven errors we had is very uncharacteristic of us. We have not shown that, and that’s obviously a tribute to Colgan, putting the ball in play and making adjustments that we were unable to make.”
The Panthers finished with 15 hits, including two singles and a double by first baseman Willie Watt and right fielder Stuart Jeck and two hits by center fielder Joe Wachter, third baseman Adam McCormick and pitcher Nate Arnold.
Watt drove in four runs with two-run singles in the sixth and seventh innings, and McCormick and Jeck contributed three RBI apiece.
McCormick, who’s signed with Highland Community College, lined a two-run double to left to give the Panthers their first lead, 3-2 in the third, and he drove in another run with a single in the sixth. Jeck, the No. 9 hitter, put the Panthers ahead to stay with a run-scoring single in the fourth and hit a two-run double in the seventh, giving him 27 RBI for the season to share the team lead.
“I thought all our hitters did a great job of hitting it hard,” Coach Watt said. “We hit the ball hard, and we hit it everywhere. When we got runners in scoring position, somebody came through with a big hit.”
Carl Junction grabbed a 2-0 lead as John Michel smacked a solo homer to left in the first inning and Travis Green’s double and Nathan Thomas’ RBI single in the second.
But in the last five innings, the Panthers’ Nate Arnold limited the Bulldogs to one unearned run and two hits. Arnold, a freshman right-hander making his second start, fanned 11 and walked one in his first complete game of the season.
“The farthest he had gone all year was three innings,” Coach Watt said. “I’d been using him mainly in relief. I just wanted to see if he could come out and give me five or six innings, and he gave me a strong seven. And he was still under 90 pitches for the game, actually 88.”
Green finished with two hits for Carl Junction, which entertains Webb City at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Colgan also has a home game Thursday against Seneca.
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