Mercyhurst University (Pennsylvania) righthander Jordan Backes and two relievers shut out the Chillicothe Mudcats on six hits Friday night as the Excelsior Springs Cougars bounced back from a walkoff loss the night before with a 2-0 victory in Chillicothe.
Backes worked 7-1/3 innings of four-hit ball before leaving after retiring the leadoff man in the home eighth with his 99th offering. Southpaw Jeremy Pope allowed a hit to the first batter he faced, but the southpaw finished the eighth and then left after the leadoff hitter in the ninth singled. Portsider Brett Severston entered to retire three of the four men he faced to save it, allowing only a hit batsman, although that did bring the potential go-ahead run to the plate in Brock LeBlanc, who had doubled off the fence in left field in his first at-bat of the night. LeBlanc bounced out to third to end it.
Excelsior Springs tallied once in the sixth inning and again in the seventh against tough-luck loser Sean Potter.
Seth Kivett's sharp hit to center scored Anthony Davis, who had led off the sixth with a walk, to make it 1-0. Travis Becherer, who went two for two with infield hits after entering as a pinch hitter in the seventh, scored the other Cougars run. With two out and men at first and third, recently-arrived Mudcats second baseman Parker Hipp let a slow bouncer by Davis play him, first fumbling it, then throwing late and wild for his second double-error of the game. Becherer scored from third on the play.
Potter, out of Arkansas-Little Rock, allowed only one earned run on five hits in going eight innings on a very economical 78 pitches. Lefty Ryan Beck then made his first appearance after arriving last weekend in the midst of a stretch of four-straight rainouts. He threw a scoreless ninth.
Backes finished with seven strikeouts and only two walks. All of the whiffs came in the first five innings.
Chillicothe, 6-4 overall and 5-4 in the MINK League after Friday's loss snapped a brief two-game win streak, will host the team with the fewest league losses among North Division teams, the Clarinda A's in a 7:05 p.m. contest Saturday. Lefthander Ethan Opsahl is expected to be the Mudcats' starting pitcher.
An originally-slated Sunday home game for the Fish with a Des Moines, Iowa, team has been cancelled, Mudcats general manager Liz Fechtig confirmed for the C-T Friday night.
