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Errors cost Charleston baseball team in Class 3, District 1 loss to Caruthersville
CHARLESTON, Mo. — A five-run fourth inning doomed the Charleston baseball team against Caruthersville in Friday’s first-round matchup of the Class 3 District 1 Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston.
The six-seeded Bluejays scored in the top of the fourth inning, which tied the game 1-1, but the three-seeded Tigers rallied in the bottom of the inning to break the game wide-open. After Blake Irions grounded out to first base, Seth Faulkner drew a walk and — after stealing second base — scored on a Christian Dudley single to center field.
Christopher Cobb would then draw the second walk of the inning for Caruthersville, and then the wheels came off the spokes for the Bluejays.
With Landon Hampton up, the Tigers were just one out away from getting out of a jam — two runners were in scoring position. Hampton hit — what looked like a routine fly ball to left field — but right fielder Richard Gillespie dropped the ball, and two runs scored on the error.
The lead was now 4-1 Caruthersville, and the inning still went on as the Tigers would add two more runs.
Charles Golliday hit a single to left field, which scored Marquan Bogan and Hampton. So, instead of the inning-ending at 2-1, it went to 6-1 in just three plate appearances.
One costly mistake changed the entire dynamic of the game, which is what Charleston head coach Michael Minner eluded to after the game.
“When you don’t do the baseball things, you know, bad things happen,” Minner said. “We didn’t do a couple of baseball things today. We had some routine plays slip away from us, and you know, we don’t go get a ball, and it probably cost us five runs. With two outs, that’s unfortunate.
“We had a chance to win, and you hate that. We’ve kind of been bit by the injury bug this year. We try not to harp on it, but we’ve had some good players that didn’t get to finish the year with us, and it hurts. We’re kind of hampered with numbers and so I’m proud of my guys for battling and for us to not quit today was big for us.”
On the mound, Charleston’s Dawson Crawford pitched a solid game but three errors behind him prevented the Bluejays from gaining any ground.
Crawford threw 4 2/3 innings of seven-hit, two earned run ball. He struck-out eight Tigers and was painting the strike zone with a 61 percent strike percentage.
Brandon O'Connor also had a solid 1 1/3 innings of relief. O'Connor gave up three hits, zero earned runs, and struck out three.
“Dawson was really good today, he threw the ball well, mixed it up,” Minner said. “Moved the ball in-and-out, and then Brandon came in, and did a tremendous job, you know, of keeping it right there.”
Charleston ends the season at 6-12, while Caruthersville will take-on Scott City in the Class 3 District 1 semifinals. The game will be Saturday at noon at Hillhouse Park in Charleston.
| Charleston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | — | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| Caruthersville | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | X | — | 7 | 10 | 3 |
WP — Blake Irions. LP — Dawson Crawford. 2B —Bryce Strawn (CRTH), Dawson Crawford (CHRL). HR — Seth Faulkner (CRTH). Multiple hitters: Caruthersville — Landon Hampton 2-4, Charles Golliday 2-4, Seth Faulkner 2-3; Charleston — Dawson Crawford 2-3.