CLARINDA, Iowa — One week after being stunned by a late long ball and then sustaining an extra-inning defeat, the Chillicothe Mudcats faced the prospect of another demoralizing road loss last night when the Clarinda A’s Stuart Smith yanked a tying, three-run home run over the right field fence in the eighth inning.
This time, however, the Mudcats found a way to put whipped cream and cherry on their Sunday.
Chillicothe center fielder Kyle Standridge atoned for an earlier baserunning mistake by bouncing a two-out single up the middle and into center field in the top of the 11th inning, scoring Brett Sowers from third base to put the Fish back on top,
5-4. When Steve Jensen completed an excellent outing by retiring Mike Heard on a foul fly to left with a man aboard in the bottom half, the Mudcats had their fifth victory in a row and owned a winning record for the first time in 2009.
"I thought the guys did a pretty good job of hanging in there and not hanging their heads too much,” assistant coach Chris Emanuel commented to the C-T today.
"Guys were playing with confidence and that was nice to see in a tight game."
The MINK League road win lifted Chillicothe’s overall record to
7-6 and their league mark to 5-6 only seven days after limping home 2-6 and 1-6, respectively, after a 9-8 10-inning defeat at Nevada in a game they led 8-4 in the ninth.
Chillicothe’s triumph boosted it right back into the heart of the race for the league’s North Division crown after a rocky start.
It not only pulled them even with Clarinda (13-11, 8-6) in the “lost” column, but to within one loss of leader St. Joseph after the Mustangs fell at Beatrice, Neb., 9-5.
While St. Joseph dipped to 10-5 in the league, defending champion Beatrice – the Mudcats’ next opponent in a Wednesday evening doubleheader in Nebraska – improved to 4-5, although they technically remain last in the five-team division by percentage points behind Chillicothe. The Topeka Golden Giants, off Sunday and idle until Thursday, also possess five losses to go with eight triumphs.
Just as they had the previous Sunday, the Mudcats looked to be solidly on their way to a win last night when the gopher ball jumped up and bit a reliever.
This time it happened to Richie Mascheri, who ironically was in line for the victory in both games.
At Nevada, he’d worked seven sturdy innings, even though he gave up a couple of solo roundtrippers, before turning over a four-run lead to Freddy Soto. Peter Barrows’ pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the ninth gave Mascheri a no-decision and Nevada then won it in the 10th against Jake Aylward.
Yesterday, lefthander Mascheri had taken over from starter Chris Williamson to begin the fifth inning with Chillicothe on top 4-1.
The Wauconda, Ill., resident from that state’s College of Lake County shut out Clarinda on one hit in his first three innings, but issued the deadly leadoff walk in the eighth.
He retired the next two men, but Rice University’s Steve Sultzbaugh pulled a double down the left field line to put two on for lefthanded-hitting Stuart Smith.
The A’s first baseman, who’d ripped a single past first baseman Justin Shultz against Mascheri in the sixth, got great contact again this time, but also got loft, driving the ball over the fence in right to tie it 4-4.
When the next batter walked, Mascheri was lifted in favor of righty Jensen, who was a closer for Butler County (Kan.) Community College during the school year.
“Richie was upset that he had given up the home run,” Emanuel related, “but I told him he went out there and competed and had nothing to hang his head about.
“He did a good job."
After a passed ball allowed the potential go-ahead run to get into scoring position, Jensen got a grounder to second to prevent further damage.
After Clarinda lefthander Alex Johnson, who’d entered in the fifth for his second appearance against the Mudcats in four days, retired Chillicothe in order in the ninth, Jensen did the same to the home club and into extra innings the Fish went for the second-consecutive Lord’s Day.
Standridge, who’d entered the night with a 5-game hitting streak, but was hitless in three official trips (plus a second-inning sacrifice bunt), extended his hitting streak with a leadoff single in the 10th. He stole second as Zach Amrein struck out, but then committed his baserunning blunder.
As John Creely tapped the ball slowly toward the third baseman, Standridge drifted away from second, hoping to try to advance to third on a throw to first. Instead, with Creely appearing likely to be the play, third sacker Kelson Brown only faked throwing across the diamond. He turned and gunned the ball to second, catching Standridge for the second out.
An infield hit put two on, but Christopher Plasencia, who’d taken over from Johnson prior to Creely’s at-bat, got the final out to strand two and provide the A’s hitters with another chance to win it.
They took a belated crack at it, but, with help from third baseman Brett Sowers, Jensen held them off.
Sultzbaugh’s second-consecutive double with two out brought Smith up again, but, with first base open, the obvious strategy to put him on intentionally was used.
After a wild pitch advanced the potential winning run to third, Brown tapped one to the left side where Sowers charged and threw on the run to get him and move the game to the 11th.
The Chillicothe 11th opened quietly as Shultz and Bryan Mason were easily retired. Then Sowers stepped in, after a quick chat with Emanuel, who encouraged the team’s leading run producer to focus on looking for a pitch he could drive deep for either a home run or a double.
"He got the 2-0 count and really kind of came out of his shoes on the swing and put a good swing on it," the coach related.
Having had Clarinda center field Greg Najac take a potential double away from him with a catch of a deep drive in the ninth, Sowers muscled up a bit more and launched a shot to left-center field, the deepest part of Clarinda’s Municipal Stadium. Najac again gave chase, but the ball bounced off the fence for a double.
Clarinda closer Stephen Thompson, who had allowed only one run in 10-plus previous innings, entered, but, in part because of a miscue, couldn’t shut the door.
Hector Acosta, a strikeout victim in three of his four at-bats since a second-inning double, dribbled a ball toward third where Brown charged, but fumbled it for an error.
Standridge stood in with men at the corners and, at Emanuel’s suggestion, tried to surprise the A’s with a bunt, only to foul it. The next pitch was a hanging slider, Emanuel reported, which Standridge bounced sharply through the middle of the diamond as Sowers trotted home with the go-ahead run.
Now with a chance for his first win, but with little room for error, Jensen induced a pair of popups – the second being taken by retreating shortstop Mason on a nice play – to get within an out of victory.
Lefthanded-hitting Seve Alvarez prolonged things by dragging a bunt past the mound for a hit, but Jensen got Mike Heard to slice a fly down the left-field line where swift Darian Sandford raced into foul ground to make the catch and end the game.
"Jensen was outstanding,” praised Emanuel, the team’s pitching coach. “…He was not overly sharp when he went in, but, as he progressed, he got better and better. He kept saying he wanted the ball and wanted to keep going. I had no reason to take him out."
Until Smith’s eighth-inning circuit clout, the game had been much like most of the Mudcats’ previous wins in their streak – take an early lead and let their pitchers take over.
A Mudcats error and a balk on Williamson had handed the Iowans a run in the first, but Chillicothe bounced back with three in the top of the second, also with the aid of an error.
After Acosta’s high popup to right-center fell in for a leadoff double, Standridge put down his sacrifice bunt, but also reached as Clarinda pitcher Chad McLin missed connections with it.
Chillicothe, Mo. —
