Bell City BB offense has shown up of late, as Cubs having nice season

Bell City High School varsity baseball coach Justin Simpher watches his team compete against Chaffee earlier this season at Bell City.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

In the short term, one could view the Bell City High School baseball squad as struggling. After all, the Cubs have lost three of their last four games, including dropping a 14-4 game at Saxony Lutheran on Tuesday. However, from a broader perspective, Bell City is currently 9-8 overall, which puts it just two games shy of matching the most wins (11) since the 2017 squad won the program’s third straight MSHSAA Class 1 State Championship.

Through the recent tough stretch, the offense hasn’t been the issue for the Cubs, which is different from earlier in the season, according to veteran Cub coach Justin Simpher.

“(Offense) has been a little slower to come around,” Simpher said earlier this season. “We’ve gotten some big hits in games early on. But, overall, I believe we are capable of hitting better than we have.”

Simpher’s confidence in his guys showed to be prophetic during recent play, as Bell City has totaled 63 runs through an eight-game stretch.

The Cubs scored 11 runs on eight hits in a win over Oak Ridge recently, which was followed by a 9-1 thumping of Advance to open the Stoddard County Athletic Association Tournament.

Even in falling to Dexter (10-7) in the SCAA Tournament, Bell City notched 11 hits against three Bearcat pitchers.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who have played a lot of baseball,” Simpher said, “before I even had them, and that is huge.”

Bell City also recently fell to Bloomfield (14-10) but managed 10 runs on 11 hits.

The Cubs, which have at least seven games remaining this season, snapped that short skid with a 7-0 shutout of Holcomb, in which Simpher’s team had seven hits before Saxony Lutheran senior pitcher David Weinhold limited the Cub hitters to just five hits and four runs.

Cub junior Baylor Eftink certainly has been productive offensively, of late.

He had a double off Weinhold, a hit, a run scored, and an RBI against Holcomb, and four hits against the Wildcats, including a home run.

The immediate task is a monumental one for Bell City, which hosts Class 3 No. 3-ranked Scott City (24-2) on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Following that challenge, the Cubs will host Delta (2-16) on Monday and Gideon (2-7) on Tuesday, with both games at 4:30 p.m.

“We’ve just got to stay together,” Simpher said. “We have to stay together as a team and be ready to do as much, or more, for the person next to you, and try to all stay together and see what happens.”