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Doniphan falls to Greenville in final conference game before OFC Tournament
DONIPHAN – With the fall baseball season winding down and the Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament just around the corner, Doniphan hosted OFC rival Greenville on Tuesday and the Bears continued their successful fall season with an 11-1 win over the Dons.
Trey Porter took the mound for the Bears and allowed only three hits in the four innings he pitched. He also recorded five strikeouts.
"We knew Porter was going to be tough," Doniphan coach Dalton Pennington said. "We had them pegged as the team to beat going into the fall and Twin Rivers kind of took that from them. We played well against Twin Rivers and we should've played well against Greenville, but we weren't ready to play (Tuesday). Greenville was the better team, but we did not come out at our best."
The Bears on the other hand roped 10 hits in the win, including a few that split the gaps in the outfield for extra bases, which resulted in runs.
"We're starting to hit well," Greenville coach Benji Stahl said. "Once we settled in, the hits started coming."
Doniphan gave the ball to J.D. Burton as he struck out seven in four innings.
"We know with J.D. on the mound, he gives us a chance to win," Pennington said.
The Bears (16-7) struck in the first inning with Will Friley roping an RBI double, but the Dons (9-10) were able to match that with Keaton Kepley getting an RBI double of his own to tie it up.
After Burton struck out the side in order and the Dons stranded two runners in the second inning, Friley hit another shot to the outfield for a double, this time scoring two runs, but he would stay at second as Burton got out of it with a flyout to left and a strikeout to end the inning.
The Bears tacked on two more runs in the fourth with Cooper Sturgeon hitting an RBI triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Miles Melvin while the Dons were kept off base by Porter.
Greenville put the game away with in the fifth as the Bears batted around and scored six runs to put the visitors up by 10. Sturgeon came in to pitch the fifth and ran into a little bit of trouble closing it out giving up back-to-back singles to Lane Allen and Maddox Baucom with one out. But Sturgeon was able to get a popout to the second baseman and a flyout to left to end the ballgame.
Both teams have one more game before the OFC Tournament next week as Doniphan will travel to Meadow Heights on Wednesday while Greenville will be at Arcadia Valley on Friday.