NEW MARKET — Southmont’s baseball team saw a lead slip away in the late innings as they lost a 9-6 Sagamore Conference game to Tri-West.
The Mounties, on the strength of two Mason Hall wind-helped home runs, led through five innings, but the Bruins put four on the board in the sixth and three in the seventh to take the lead and run their record to 2-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference.
The Mounties, who fall to 0-5 on the season with two Sagamore losses this week to TW, also got a strong pitching effort from Nick Scott, as the sophomore struck out 11 before running out of pitches in the seventh.
“We needed to play cleaner defense behind him (Hall),” said Mounties coach Brad Wininger, noting five errors and four unearned runs against Scott. “Extra outs make a big difference.”
The Mounties got their offense started quickly, though, as Hall put a solid fly ball into the 27 mph win heading out of right field for a first-inning homer, scoring Conner McKinney in front of him after reaching on an error.
Hall repeated the scene in the third, again with McKinney on, getting another one into the jet stream and landing near Highway 231.
Scott scored in the fourth when McKinney was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, but that was the only run of the inning for the Mounties. They got their sixth run in the sixth when Dylan Howell was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on an error.
The runs nearly stopped for South when Bruins relief pitcher Isaac Pierson came to the mound in that fourth inning, in relief of starter Max Ward.
Pierson didn’t allow a hit in his three-plus innings worked, and got the win in relief.
“I’m really proud of the fight in the guys, they never quit,” first-year TW coach Nick Spence said. “It was too early for our closer, and Pierson came in and pitched well. He threw strikes and challenged the Southmont hitters. We are still a work in progress this early in the season. We used a lot of different guys than we used Tuesday (in the first game with South). We had to give some other guys some chances.”
The Bruins big bat was in the hands of Reid Benner, who had three hits, including a wind-aided triple that scored two in the big sixth inning. He finished with four RBI, as he added a single in the seventh to score another pair.
The Mounties finished with five hits. The also were strikeout victims 14 times. “We need to put the ball in play more,” Wininger said, “but we are improving. We just need to forget the errors after they happen. Believing in ourselves and each other goes a long way.
The Mounties travel to Fountain Central for a game Friday and they have Frankfort in conference action next Tuesday and Wednesday.
