Mountain Grove pitcher Alex Moore led the Panthers’ charge against the Houston Tigers Monday night, combining with Brock Coffman for a five-inning no-hitter, 11-0.
The Panthers backed up the heat from their pitcher with solid hitting.
“It was a good performance,” said Mountain Grove head coach Derwin McGownd. “Alex Moore did a great job on the mound, coming out and throwing strikes, and was around the plate enough that he kept us in the ball game.”
Out of the three-hole, D. J. McNew reached base all three times to the plate, including an RBI single in the first. McNew added a pair of stolen bases in the fourth after walking to lead off the inning, igniting a four run drive for his team. Treye Collins provided good defense behind the plate, an effort matched by his batting. Collins added a pair of singles, a stolen base, and two RBIs.
“Up and down the lineup I thought we swung the bat real well, with the lead-off with Blaine Halford all the way down through,” said Coach McGownd. “Pretty much everybody put the ball in play, and all contributed to scoring runs. Brock Coffman came in and did a great job at the end of the game just to come in and finish it out and to try to keep our pitch counts down. We have a busy week this week, so we’re trying to keep everyone’s arms so we can use them more than one time.”
On Thursday, Moore struck out 15 batters against Thayer, and followed that performance by pitching four innings for the win against Houston.
Houston head coach Brent Hall said there were positives to take away from his team’s performance. “I thought Trevor Motzkus pitched well for about three and half innings, but he got tired and he got worn down. He lost a bit of confidence with things going on behind him, but I thought he went out there and battled. We did put together a few good at-bats earlier in the game, but then as the game went on, we didn’t so much. “
Houston reached base on three walks.
“It was a good pitching performance by Alex Moore,” said Coach Hall. “He dominated the game from start to finish. We made a lot of mistakes out there to kind of help him out a bit and blow the game wide open. We didn’t compete the way I thought we should have competed today.”
The Panthers next travel to Ava, looking to improve on their 10-2 record. The Tigers look to move past .500 at Thayer after dropping to 8-8.
Houston 0 0 0 0 0
Mtn. Grove 4 1 2 4
