Poplar Bluff baseball beats New Madrid in extra innings

NEW MADRID — Poplar Bluff needed every bit of eight innings to beat New Madrid County Central.

The Mules held on to win 7-6 after Carson Webb got a comeback and a strikeout in the bottom of the eighth with runners on second and third.

“We had to fight for everything we had,” Poplar Bluff coach Steve Edwards said.

Tied at four in the top of the eighth, Webb drew a leadoff walk and Sam Pierce laid down a sacrifice bunt. In scoring position, Luke Becker singled up the middle to take the lead.

Kannon Carr walked behind him and Daryl Vaughn II came in as a pinch hitter and hit another single up the middle.

New Madrid countered by drawing its own leadoff walk in the bottom of the frame. With one out, the Eagles singled, and then the Mules gave up a run after they committed their first error at the shortstop position all season.

Becker went 2 for 3 with a run, an RBI and a walk to lead the Mules.

“Becker is the hottest hitter we’ve got right now,” Edwards said.

Blake Robertson also had two hits and Justin Moses had one as Poplar Bluff tallied five total hits as a team.

Dawson Hanner had two RBIs and a run while going 0 for 4 at the plate.

Gavin Bond and Caden Howell each scored twice for New Madrid and Austin Davis had two hits and two RBIs. Gabe York added three RBIs and a run.

Johnathon Thurman had a perfect game through four innings for Poplar Bluff and finished with two hits and a walk against over 5 1/3 innings. He also had three strikeouts and only one of the four runs against him were earned.

“He was cruising,” Edwards said. “We made a couple errors and they capitalized on it, chipped away and tied the game up. But JT, he threw well.”

Webb pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and allowed two hits and a walk with six strikeouts.

Noah Burkey played in the outfield for the Mules as they work him back into the lineup after Burkey suffered a concussion recently.

“He made a couple of really good plays in the outfield,” Edwards said. “It is exciting to get everybody back to full speed right before the conference tournament and we’ll see what happens.”