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Spartans walk off the Fighting Squirrels in extra innings
It was a long 11 inning battle between the McDonald’s Fighting Squirrels and the SEMO Spartans on Wednesday in the Missouri 17u Senior Babe Ruth Tournament, but the Spartans came back late in the game to win in a close 3-2 final score.
The Fighting Squirrels were able to get two runs in the first four innings of the game, however they could not score anymore through the rest of the game. The Spartans took advantage of this and put up two runs in the sixth to tie it and eventually won the game on a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th.
Blake Wagster scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th after reaching base with a walk and then scoring on a single by teammate Camden Riley.
Manager for the Spartans, Andy Riley said after the game, “Our pitching was outstanding today. There was a couple defensive plays earlier in the game that costs us two runs and if it was not for that the game would have been over a lot earlier. Camden Riley came through for us in the last inning and that was huge for us. All of our pitchers did really well for us today and that allowed us to come out on top.”
The pitching was the main story line throughout the game for both the Fighting Squirrels and Spartans. Jolby Jones started the game for the Spartans and struck out seven, walked three, and gave up two earned runs through four innings. Wyatt Nimmo relieved Jones and gave his team five solid innings of work allowing only one hit and striking out three in the process. After 58 pitches from Nimmo, JD Burton would finish up the game throwing two innings, collecting three strikeouts and earning the save for the Spartans.
Wyatt Brinkopf pitched great for the Fighting Squirrels as he gave up only one hit through his first five innings. In the sixth inning Brinkopf gave up back to back-to-back singles to load the bases full of Spartans and be taken out of the game after that. Trey Benthal came into the game to pitch in the sixth inning and would strike out a total of nine batters through 3 2/3 innings.
“It was not a bad effort from our team at all today,” said Squirrels head coach Jamie Frakes. “I liked our intensity, I liked out pitching, but we are slumping offensively right now. We have to be more patient and we have to be more selective at the plate. There was several times the Spartans had four pitch innings because we did not work the pitchers like we should have.”
The Spartans advanced to play the Tropics on Thursday while the Squirrels fell into the loser’s bracket and were slated to take on the Legends Thursday.