By Tyler Thompson (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
MARIONVILLE — The Marionville Comets (17-4) were champing at the bit to hit their field Thursday evening.
After all, this week’s spring saturation that ripped through the Ozarks forced the Comets’ hands, as they were kept out of game action for seven days.
Starting pitcher Emmit Neely — the team’s No. 1 hurler — shut down the Pierce City (9-10) offense, as the Comets extended their home record to 6-1 this season after defeating the Eagles 10-0 in five innings for the Southwest Conference win.
When Neely took the ball on the bump, he was ready — even though one pitch in his arsenal wasn’t to his standard.
“I felt great,” Neely said. “Throw ‘em a lot of curveballs. [They] weren’t working as well today as they had been. There were a lot in the dirt. I walked one when the curveball was up.”
Neely converted first-pitch strikes via fastball, and painted the black while mixing up his velocity — which led to three strikeouts and getting the opposition swinging off its lead foot.
“Getting ahead early always helps,” Neely said. “Always stay ahead, and you can always work back, but it is a lot of help if you can get ahead early.”
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Neely — like any ace — set the tone from the onset with his 0-1, 1-2 counts, but the play of his defense and its ability to flash the leather served as an added bonus for the hurler.
“Yeah, it’s awesome,” Neely said. “They make very few errors, and they did again today. I believe in them.”
The righty allowed just one hit in his five innings of work — and the Comets offense hit at will.
“He was great again. That’s our ace,” Marionville head coach Jason Grose said of Neely. “He has been dominant all year, and was again [tonight].”
With the win, the Comets — who own an 81 percent winning percentage and are outscoring the opposition 7.2 runs per game — own at least a share of the conference title, with one more conference game on the docket at Ash Grove to be played.
“If we beat Ash Grove, we are conference champions,” Grose said. “If we lose to them and they beat Lockwood, then we will share it [conference title].”
The Comets’ proactive approach at the dish on this night was continual and compact: go up to the plate hacking.
And, while a 10-0 mercy-ruled win would appease some, Grose said there still is more work to do.
“Honestly, offensively, I didn’t think we were very good today. Although we scored 10 runs, we hit a ton of ground balls. I wasn’t pleased with it, but we ended up scoring 10 runs and put the ball in play the most part. Offensively, I thought we could have been better.”
While there may not have been many launch angles on the Comets hits, they produced base runners, utilized the hit-and-run, and put the pressure on the defense all night long — which led to four errors.
“We have stolen a lot of bases all year,” Grose said. “We have a lot of team speed.”
Marionville plated one run in the first, another in the second, before breaking the game wide open with its four-run fourth.
In the fourth, Jacksen Smith drove in a run on his single, prior to James Hammonds’ fielder’s choice plated a run.
Up 4-0, Evan Dotson crushed the two-run single to send his Comets to the early 6-0 lead.
A Pierce City error, a two-run double by Hammonds, and a sac fly by Dotson ended the scoring for the host.
“We haven’t seen live pitching in a week,” Grose said.
The Comets previously spent several years in the Mid-Lakes Conference prior to finding a new home in the Southwest Conference.
While the competition is different, it suits Grose and his Comets.
“We were playing Strafford and Fair Grove and Skyline and Stockton, it was tough. With a school our size, this conference is better suited for us as far as competition.”
The Comets are the top seed in the upcoming Class 3 District 12 Tournament.
Currently, Marionville will play the Sarcoxie-Forsyth winner at 4 p.m. May 13.
