Six days after utilizing several of the 15 free passes issued to them by Chillicothe Mudcats pitchers to erase a 4-0 deficit in the late innings and tie up what became a suspended game, the Mac-N-Seitz Athletics Tuesday converted three eighth-inning walks, a bunt single, and a single to center field into a winning three-run rally in a 5-3 MINK League triumph over the Mudcats.
“I’m tired of losing games because of our short relief and because we don’t throw strikes,” a still-perturbed head coach “Jud” Kindle of the Mudcats remarked this morning.
“If you look at the game, we outplayed them almost every way. We out-hit them 10-4, we had no errors to their two, we stole more bases, but we put guys on base without making them swing the bat.”
“If we’d have had better late-inning relief pitching and thrown strikes when we’ve had chance to close out games, we could easily be 8-2 now instead of 5-5,” grumbled the Mudcats head coach.

With the defeat, Chillicothe slipped to 2-3 in the league and 5-5 overall, heading into a game tonight at Beatrice, Neb., with the undefeated, loop-leading Bruins. The planned starting pitcher for the Mudcats is Blake Barber, according to Kindle.
Thursday night, the Mudcats are due to host the Clarinda (Iowa) A’s at 7:05 p.m., with Andrew Dunn in line to start on the hill.

Just as was the case in the teams’ meeting at Richmond last Thursday, the Athletics reached Mudcats pitchers for only four hits in nine innings yesterday at Blue Springs South High School’s field. As happened last week, as well, Chillicothe pitchers set up all of the Leawood, Kan.-based baseball academy’s scoring with a failure to throw the ball over the plate. Although not as ghastly as in the prior game against Mac-N-Seitz, the Mudcats’ walks issued total yesterday still was a disconcerting seven.
There was another eerie similarity also – the replacement of a Chillicothe relief pitcher who had pitched effectively with another who didn’t retire any of the three batters he faced and then the subsequent inability of a third reliever to bail out his teammate.
Last week, Ryan Carbah came on and threw a hitless seventh inning to preserve a 4-0 Chillicothe lead (although he did issue one walk) before Eric Darkow was used to begin the eighth and gave two walks and hit a batter, prompting his quick removal. Would-be closer Ryan Theriot allowed two of the three inherited runners to score and then, hampered by a couple of errors – one his own – gave up the tying runs before rain moved in after the ninth inning ended.
Yesterday, Kindle’s choice of righthanded reliever Aaron Kleekamp to replace starting pitcher Aaron Meade after only three innings looked to have been a stroke of genius.
Kleekamp, yet to be scored on this season, not only extended his season-starting string of scoreless innings to 11, but did not allow a baserunner and struck out seven while working four perfect frames, protecting a razor-thin 3-2 lead throughout that stint.
However, because Kleekamp – like Meade – had reached the approximate pitch limit Kindle and assistant/pitching coach Justin Nold had felt advisable to establish prior to the game, the decision was made to lift him after the seventh.
The slim lead was turned over to Carbah, whose stats to date had gone Kleekamp one better. The righthander out of St. Charles (Mo.) Community College not only had not allowed any runs in five previous innings over three relief appearances, he hadn’t given up a hit. Ominously, however, he had walked six.
Immediately, his difficulty throwing strikes came front and center as he walked the first two batters he faced – the Nos. 8 and 9 batters in the Mac-N-Seitz order who, combined, had only put the ball in play with a sacrifice bunt in four previous plate appearances in the game.
Athletics leadoff hitter Riley Reynolds then put down a bunt to try to advance the potential tying and leading runs into scoring position and got the added benefit of placing it well enough in the thick infield grass that he beat it out, loading the bases with the first hit Carbah had allowed as a Mudcat.
“He couldn’t find the strike zone… and we had to get him out of there,” said Kindle.
In a major jam, Kindle called for recently-recruited lefthander Michael Flanigan to try to perform a Houdini act. He couldn’t.
The lefty from Cowley College in Arkansas City, Kan., threw a pitch to the backstop while facing his first batter and was tardy coming in to cover home plate. As a result, when the ball caromed hard back to catcher Cole Mazurek in time to make a play on runner John Oropeza trying to score from third, he had no one to throw to at the plate and the score was 3-3.
Flanigan then finished walking Colin Murphy to refill the bases for big Cam Seitzer, the lefthanded-swinging son of former major leaguer Kevin Seitzer, who co-owns the academy with fellow ex-Kansas City Royal Mike MacFarlane and also manages the Athletics team.
Seitzer, who had singled off lefty Meade in the third inning, also was unbothered by southpaw Flanigan, lining a hit to center to score pinch runner Mike Garza with the go-ahead run. With none out, Reynolds was held up at third, but the runner behind him didn’t take note of that until it was too late. Mudcats first baseman Dominic D’Anna cut off Matty Johnson’s throw toward the plate and threw back to shortstop Kyle Zimmerman covering second to get Colin Murphy trying to retreat there for a gift first out.
Mac-N-Seitz pinch hitter Seth Dutton then tapped slowly enough to second baseman TS Reed’s left that the infielder had only the option of retiring the batter at first while Reynolds dashed home with the game’s last run.
“I think he might have just been trying too hard,” Kindle said of the team’s newest hurler.

Prior to the bottom of the eighth, the only innings the Athletics had even had a baserunner were the first and third. In the first, Meade got C. Seitzer to ground into a double play to erase a one-out walk, but in the third he wasn’t as fortunate.
After passing the first two batters of the inning, Meade was within an out of stranding them as, after a sacrifice bunt, he got Reynolds to pop up. However, Murphy rapped a two-out single right up the middle, tying the game 2-2. Seitzer followed with his first hit, but Meade fanned Preston Land to strand two, beginning a run of 13 consecutive Athletics who would be retired until Carbah’s troubles in the eighth.

The Mudcats had opened the game’s scoring in the second with four hits and two runs and, right after the Athletics tied it in the third, re-took the lead in the fourth.
In the second, consecutive hits by Tyler Knight, Luke Schlechte, and Aaron Conway put the game’s first tally on the board. However, on Conway’s hit to left, Schlechte was cut down trying to reach third with Conway moving up to second on the play at third.
Conway then stole third and, breaking toward home plate as Mac-N-Seitz starting pitcher Ben Martin was in his delivery to Cole Mazurek, induced a disputed balk which allowed him to score. The ruling by the umpire turned out to be a moot point when Zimmerman subsequently singled, a blow which would have scored Conway anyway.
Knight and Schlechte, each of whom finished with three hits in four trips, were at it again in the fourth. Knight hustled his way into a double on a drive to right-center field leading off and Schlechte, serving as designated hitter, followed a passed ball with a sharp RBI single to right to give Chillicothe back the lead, 3-2.
While Kleekamp was mowing the Athletics down, the Mudcats had chances to improve their lead, but failed, and those failures came back to haunt them, as they usually do.
After Schlechte’s hit in the fourth, he stole second with still no outs, but didn’t budge. In the Chillicothe fifth, fleet-footed leadoff Matty Johnson stroked an extra-base hit to right field, but as he tried to stretch it into a triple he was called out, apparently for not maintaining contact with the bag after seemingly beating the play.
In the seventh, Mazurek was hit by a pitch to start the inning and a wild throw to first on Zimmerman’s sacrifice bunt let the Chillicothe catcher go first to third. However, Johnson tapped out to shortstop as Mazurek held at third and Zimmerman advanced. Reed then grounded to the shortstop, who easily threw out Mazurek at home, and, one batter too late, Bubby Williams hit a fly ball to left.
Another chance to increase the pencil-thin lead was missed in the eighth. D’Anna drew a leadoff walk – one of only three given to the Mudcats – and, with one out, Schlechte’s single to center moved him to second. After Conway forced Schlechte at second and then stole second, Mazurek fanned with two men in scoring position to end the inning.
“They got the job done. They made good pitches and got our guys out,” Kindle assessed the missed chances.

Statistically, Kleekamp was the game’s star, the collapse of the bullpen behind him robbing him of a much-deserved second win.
On his way to retiring all 12 batters he faced, the Washington, Mo., and Jefferson College Vikings righthander struck out six of the first eight, including four in a row in one stretch. For the year so far, he now has 15 strikeouts while allowing only three hits in 11 innings.
At the plate, Schlechte’s 3-for-4 day jacked his batting average back up from .417 to .464 (13 of 28), while Knight’s same effort kept his recent hot streak going. He’s now seven for his last 15, spiking his average exactly 100 points to .308.
For Mac-N-Seitz, Cam Seitzer had the only multi-hit game, going two for four. No one below Seitzer’s No. 3 spot in the Athletics lineup had a hit and two of the team’s four hits were on the infield.
Getting the win in relief for Mac-N-Seitz was Joe Heater, who pitched into and out of the danger in the seventh and eighth. Nick Graffeo earned the save with a hitless ninth, although he did issue a two-out walk to Reed to bring up Williams representing the potential tying run. Williams went down swinging at a third strike.
With four more games to play against the Athletics, Kindle says his team needs to become mentally stronger.
“We just have to believe we’re the better team. We’re going to have to find ways to win.”

NOTES:  Conway’s and Schlechte’s RBIs were each their sixth, two behind co-leaders Knight and Williams with D’Anna (seven) sandwiched between. … The 15 walks Chillicothe pitchers doled out last Thursday against Mac-N-Seitz are believed to be the most in team history.