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Pitching provides boost, East Prairie baseball defeats New Madrid County Central
NEW MADRID, Mo. — After a slow start on Tuesday afternoon, Carson Aycock and the East Prairie baseball team battled from behind to beat New Madrid County Central 4-3, on the road.
NMCC scored two runs in the bottom half of the first inning after East Prairie was retired in order in the top of the frame, to lead 2-0.
Austin Davis led off the inning by drawing a five-pitch walk, and then after back-to-back strikeouts, John Michael Stanley reached on an error that scored Davis from first base.
Gabe York then drew the second walk of the inning to put runners on first and second with two outs and Caden Howell up to bat. Howell would make the most of his at-bat, as he doubled to left field, scoring Nowell, to equal the scoring.
Once the second inning hit, though, the East Prairie’s bats started to heat up.
The first five Eagles reached base safely. Harrison Moore, Lane Moody, and Jack Scruggs all singled to load the bases.
Then with Garrison Scott up to bat, Brian Merryman — who came in as a courtesy runner — scored on an error by the NMCC right fielder, which advanced everyone up one base.
Scott would then ground into a fielder’s choice, scoring Moody to tie the game up, with the bases still loaded after Scott reached safely on the ground ball to third base.
Another unearned run would then cross the plate, as Hayden Ellis scored on a miscue by NMCC’s third baseman, giving the Eagles a 3-2 lead.
Jace Aycock then singled to load the bases, and Carson drew a walk to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead, as East Prairie would bat around in the inning to take firm control of the game.
“We jump out 2-0 in the bottom of the first, and they come back in the top of the second and put a four-spot up, and they swung the bats well that inning,” NMCC head coach Joe McClarty said. “They just put the baseball in play and hit the baseball, and they earned everything they got today. We earned everything we got today; it was just a great high school baseball game. I was proud of everybody’s effort.”
After getting into some trouble early, Carson wound up pitching a gem.
Over his next five innings of work, Carson finished with six strikeouts, while allowing one hit and four walks.
Jace then came on to close the game out for the Eagles, as he gave up one hit, struck out one, and walked one, on 17 pitches.
“Carson’s our guy,” East Prairie head coach Dalton Golightly said. “We expect him to throw the pitch count limit every game, hopefully, if that’s the case, and he can compete with anybody in the area.
“This is the second time Jace has came in and closed out a big win. He did it against Scott City, and the thing for Jace when comes into a situation like that is just to throw strikes and let the defense work. We can’t win games walking people, and he’s done an excellent job so far.”
It was not an easy outing for Jace in the seventh, however.
Davis led off the frame by drawing a walk. Then, Thailin Marsh laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Davis into scoring position.
Davis then advanced to third base on a wild pitch, and Gavin Bond hit a hard ground ball, but right at the shortstop, who threw a dart right to Moore who then applied the tag on Davis to retire the game-tying run.
“They brought the infield in, and Gavin scorches one right to the shortstop,” McClarty said. “Shortstop made a heck of a play, and the young man fielded it well and threw a strike home and he just barely beat Austin. I told AD that if he got a good jump, try to take it; it could tie the game up. The kid made a heck of a play; you just got to tip your cap to him. They made the right plays when they needed to, and they pulled it out today.”
NMCC would leave a pair of runners’ on-base — one in scoring position — after Stanley hit a single, and York struck out looking to end the game.
Without the services of Derez Tipler in center field — who is out with an injury — Golightly said that this way the biggest win of the season when it comes to district standings.
“That was probably the biggest win of the season right now with that being a district game,” Golightly said. “We came into the season knowing that we have a good group of young guys that can step in. We have four freshmen playing right now, and when Derez went out, it was just a thing that no one really even blinked an eye — it hasn’t really been talked about. Garrison Scott stepped in, and we went from there. We’ve just kind of been rolling right now.”
| East Prairie | 040 | 000 | 0 | — | 4 | 8 | 2 |
| NMCC | 200 | 010 | 0 | — | 3 | 3 | 3 |
WP — Carson Aycock. LP — Thailin Marsh. 2B — Caden Howell (N). Multiple hitters: East Prairie — Jase Aycock 2-3, Lane Moody 3-4.