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June 17, 2008

Broncos kick struggling Slashers

y Ryan Atkinson

ratkinson@joplinglobe.com

The Joplin Slashers continued their offensive struggles Tuesday night, waiting until the ninth inning to score a run and dropping a 6-3 Jayhawk League decision to the El Dorado Broncos at Joe Becker Stadium.

“Our offensive is just so inadequate right now,” Joplin manager Dennis Vilela said. “We’re leaving guys on base and not moving guys over ... we still aren’t making adjustments.”

Joplin fell to 3-7 and 2-7 in the Jayhawk while the Broncos improved to 8-4, 6-3.

The Slashers ended the night with eight hits, but five of them came in the final two innings and three of the eight were infield singles. Jared DeLong’s sacrifice fly and Will McGinnis’ two-run double — both of which came in the ninth — produced Joplin’s only runs.

“I told the guys that they need to go home tonight and think about what they can do offensively to make this team better,” Vilela said. “We just aren’t having good at-bats. We don’t get aggressive until we have two strikes on us. We have got to become more aggressive early in the count.”

The lack of offensive production and a five Joplin errors erased what was a solid outing by three Slashers pitchers.

Cody Kelley, a righty from Delta State, went five innings and allowed five runs, two of which were unearned. He struck out four and walked three before giving way to Kean University’s Colin Feneis, who allowed just one hit and fanned four in three innings of work. Moorehead State’s Tyler Bess pitched the ninth, allowing one run and striking out one.

“Cody, Colin and Tyler did a good job on the mound tonight,” Vilela said. “But we had too many errors behind them.”

Slasher errors aided El Dorado runs in the third, fifth and ninth innings. Joplin also blew a pair of double-play chances in the Broncos’ two-run third.

“That’s uncharacteristic for us,” Vilela said. “We can’t make those mistakes because that leads to more pitches and more chances for the other team.”

The Broncos took a 2-0 lead in the third when Jaime Armendariz singled and later came home on Colby Price’s error. Matt Koch drove home Matt Davis with a fielder’s choice.

Heath Wall’s RBI double in the fourth made it 3-0 before the Broncos added two more in the fifth, the second coming on DeLong’s drop of a routine fly ball in center field.

The Slashers’ deficit was 6-0 before they finally got on the board in the ninth. Mike Dunlavy led off with a walk before Tyler Smith chopped an infield single to short and Keith Kenny walked to load the bases. DeLong then lifted a sacrifice fly to left before McGinnis split the gap in left-center for a two-out, two-run double that made it 6-3.

But El Dorado pitcher Matthew Kimball fanned Joe Walton to end the game.

McGinnis ended the night 3-for-5 with two RBI while Walton added a pair of singles.

El Dorado was led at the plate Preston Springer, who was 2-for-4 with a double, triple, walk, RBI and run. Kieran Bradford and Wall each added two hits.

“We’re playing pretty well offensively,” El Dorado J.D. Schneider said. “We’ve moving guys over when we need to and then getting the key hits,”

Chris Hord started for the Broncos, going five scoreless innings while allowing just two hits. Hawaii’s Harrison Kuroda pitched two innings, striking out five and allowing just one hit.

Joplin and El Dorado meet for another league contest at Joe Becker Stadium tonight at 7.

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