Semoball

Breaks and plays go against Holcomb in C2 semi loss

Holcomb junior pitcher Nate Rhew throws against East Buchanan in the MSHSAA Class 2 Baseball State Semifinal on Monday at US Ballpark in Ozark.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

OZARK – The Holcomb baseball team didn’t play its best game of the season in Monday’s MSHSAA Class 2 State Semifinal against East Buchanan, in fact, it was far from the Hornets’ best effort. However, it wasn’t as if Holcomb played poorly.

“I thought we hit a lot of balls well,” Hornet coach Darin Shipman said. “But you have to hand it to (East Buchanan) they made plays.”

The Bulldogs seemingly made every play, while the Hornets failed to make enough, as East Buchanan won 4-0.

Holcomb (20-6) will face Putnam County (19-3) today at 4 p.m. in the third-place game. The Midgets fell to Marionville 8-5 in the other semifinal.

The loss wasted a more-than-solid pitching outing by Holcomb junior Nate Rhew, who threw the entire game.

“He’s a workhorse,” Shipman said of Rhew.

The ominous signs against Holcomb showed early, as East Buchanan got a runner on in the first inning with two outs. Following a stolen base, a Hornet error put Holcomb down one run. However, all was not lost because Rhew was throwing well.

Rhew gave up a single and a walk in the second inning but punched out a Bulldog to end the inning.

Holcomb showed fire in the third inning and was on the verge of a barrage of offense.

Hornet senior Eli Bader drew a walk and moved to second on a single by junior Zander Burke. Both runners had moved up a bag when Rhew drew a walk. But with the bases loaded, the East Buchanan defense turned a double play to end the threat.

“That double play was huge when we had bases loaded,” Shipman said.

Still trailing just 1-0 with Rhew keeping his team in the game, sophomore Payton McNabb drew a lead-off walk.

Bader followed that with a hard hit down the third-base side, but the Bulldog third baseman not only nabbed the ball out of the air for one out, but McNabb had also broken for second base and had to speed back to first. He dove for the bag, but the East Buchanan third baseman had gunned him down by a split second for a double play.

As the Hornet luck was falling short, the Bulldog breaks were continuing.

Trailing 2-0 in the sixth inning, Holcomb sophomore Barry Privett was pinch-running on first base. The East Buchanan pitcher threw a passed ball that rolled to the backstop, but Privett looked unsure of what to do and Hornet assistant coach Michael Snider didn’t emphatically send him sprinting for second base.

Shipman shouted his frustration at the time, which only became more troublesome when Hunter Lawrence followed up with a shot down the left-field line, which would have easily scored Privett if he had been on second.

Rhew was piling up pitches at that point and ultimately threw more than 100 pitches in the six innings of work.

“He’s thrown over 100 (pitches) three or four times this year,” Shipman said. “We were trying to keep us right there. If you keep it at two (runs) and you get a runner on, then you have a chance.”

East Buchanan added a couple of runs on three hits in its final at-bat in the sixth inning, as Rhew finished with nine strikeouts, nine hits allowed, three earned runs, and having walked three.

Burke and Lawrence paced the Hornet offense with two hits apiece, while Bader and Wilson McGee also made connections.

The loss continued a negative streak for the Holcomb program, which has advanced to the Final Four six times but has yet to win a state championship. On the bright side, though, the Hornets have finished third three times and never finished fourth.

“You still have to have some pride and compete,” Shipman said of Tuesday’s outing. “You’re still in the Final Four and it is a pleasure to be up here. So we have to get out there and compete.”

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