By Ryan Atkinson
ratkinson@joplinglobe.com
Tom Luce’s pitch count meant bad news for the Joplin Slashers on Friday night against the Hays Larks.
Luce threw five dominant innings and left with a 3-0 lead, but the Larks scored five times in the next two innings and dealt the Slashers a 5-3 setback at Joe Becker Stadium.
“Hays is a great hitting team and you can’t give them the opportunities that we gave them,” Slashers manager Dennis Vilela said. “We fell behind too many hitters and gave them good pitches to swing at.”
That wasn’t the case with Luce on the mound.
The 6-foot-6, 200-pound righty from Broken Arrow, Okla., allowed just three hits while striking out seven in his five innings of work. Five of his strikeouts came on called third strikes.
“We lost the game, so obviously that stinks, but I felt really good throwing,” Luce said. “The command of my slider was the best its been in a long time.”
The Slashers (2-2) staked Luce to an early lead 1-0 when Patrick Walsh, Will McGinnis and Joe Walton hit successive singles in the bottom of the first. Colby Price made it 2-0 in the second when he pulled a hanging breaking ball just over the left-field fence. Tyler Link’s fourth-inning double scored Mick Doyle to stretch the lead to 3-0.
But Joplin managed just three hits in the final five innings and threatened to score just once, leaving runners on second and third in the seventh.
“We kind of ran into a rut offensively,” Vilela said. “Our approach at the plate changed and I don’t really know why. When we’re hitting well, we’re watching pitches. We started swinging at too many balls and we didn’t get many good at bats.”
The Larks, meanwhile, saw the quality of their plate appearances go up once Luce left the game.
Hays welcomed Joplin pitcher Lee Henry to the game in the sixth with two singles, a double and a walk to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Henry escaped with the lead by striking out three straight, but the Larks grabbed the lead in the seventh. Rich Michalek scored on an error to tie the game before Eric Roof gave the Larks the lead with a two-run double to center.
Roof, a catcher from Michigan State, was 4-for-4 with three doubles, a walk and two RBI.
“They can hit the ball and they started showing that late in the game,” Vilela said. “That’s when we were falling behind in too many at-bats. We have got to get better at that. We just couldn’t make the pitches when it counted.”
Notes: McGinnis, Walton and Doyle each had two singles for the Slashers, who finished with 10 hits as a team. ... Joplin batters struck out 10 times on the night, including seven times in the final four innings. ... Joplin center fielder Jared DeLong made an impressive running catch in the fourth, chasing down Kevin Hennessey’s long drive and making an over-the-shoulder grab. ... The two squads play for tonight’s Boomtown Night at Joe Becker Stadium. There will be no admission charge.
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