From staff reports

sports@joplinglobe.com

Five teams got off to 2-0 starts Wednesday as the Premier Baseball Incoming Freshman Championship began its five-day run in the Joplin area.

A total of 18 games were played at five fields. Eighteen more are scheduled today, and pool play concludes Friday with nine games before bracket play starts on Saturday.

Three of the five teams off to perfect starts are from Texas — Columbia Angels Gray and Austin Slam in Pool 1 and Houston Heat in Pool 3.

The Wichita Sluggers matched the Heat’s 2-0 mark in Pool 3, and the Bayside Yankees, from New York, won their first two games in Pool 2.

All three local entries lost their first two games.

The Southwest Missouri Miners, after losing their opener to the Yankees, took the lead in their second game but lost 11-10 to Rawlings Prospects Mach from St. Louis.

The Miners, with players from high schools in Joplin, Webb City, Carl Junction and Galena, have two games today at Joplin High School, meeting the Austin Wings Red at 1 p.m. and Arlington A’s Blue at 3:30.

Some teams had to make the adjustment to the bigger playing dimensions of 60 feet, 6 inches from the pitcher’s mound to home plate and 90 feet between bases.

“We’ve played USSSA ball, so we’re used to 54 (feet for pitchers) and 80 (feet between bases),” Southwest Longhorns coach Bob Kerbs said. “Our pitching struggled a little bit, getting used to the six feet farther.

“But I’m pleased with the way we played against teams from Texas who have played together all season, the cream of the crop. Just about every one of them was from different schools.”

The Longhorns lost their games by scores of 14-6 to Rawlings Prospects Dunavant, a team from St. Louis, and 10-2 to Columbia Angels Gray.

The Longhorns scored all six runs against Rawlings in the fourth inning, highlighted by an inside-the-park home run by Johnathan Klingaman from Nevada. Eric Leavell, Cory Kerbs, Kyle Banes, Richie Peoples and Josh Baker also had hits during the inning.

Against the Columbia Angels, the Longhorns scored twice in the third. Baker and Klingaman scored the runs.