By Brock Sisney (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
WEBB CITY — The Webb City Cardinals jumped out quickly with three runs in the first and then held on tightly for a 5-3 win Thursday evening against Central Ozark Conference rival Nixa at Chuck Barnes Field.
“It was a very good win,” Webb City head coach Flave Darnell said. “Nixa is a great program and it keeps us in that conference race a little bit. Hopefully, somebody can knock off Republic along the way and we’ve got Neosho, definitely not overlooking them by any means, and then Republic next week. It will be a fun week next week, for sure.”
Class 5 No. 2 Webb City improved to 16-5 overall and 5-2 COC, and return to action Saturday, weather permitting, against Marshfield and Ste. Genevieve. The Cardinals have already won a pair of games this week against fellow Class 5 state-ranked Carl Junction and Class 6 state-ranked Nixa.
By the way, the Eagles were officially the home team Thursday since the game was relocated from Nixa to turf-infield Webb City to get it in at this point late in the season.
Nixa dropped to 16-4 overall and 4-2 COC with the loss, and joined the ranks of three COC schools with two losses in conference play. The Eagles next play Monday on the road against Kickapoo, a prelude to conference games Tuesday and Thursday against lone conference unbeaten Republic and lone team without a conference win Neosho.
Republic (15-6, 7-0 COC) closes out conference play next week against Nixa and Webb City, as the Tigers will have their chance to go unbeaten through the rigorous COC.
Starting the game Thursday, Webb City leadoff man Devrin Weathers fell behind in the proverbial 0-2 hole against Nixa starter Keith Piepmeier, but Piepmeier lost him with four straight balls. Weathers stole second and scored on a Treghan Parker RBI double. No. 3 hitter Shane Noel’s perfectly executed bunt single put Cards at the corners and they reached three runs on a Matt Woodmansee sacrifice fly and a Cole Gayman double.
“It was big,” Darnell said of the three-run first. “Devrin and Treghan have been doing great at the top of the order and Shane Noel’s base hit bunt was awesome. We’ve been really stressing small ball and I thought we did well Tuesday (against Carl Junction) and did a pretty good job today. We need to keep doing that stuff to put pressure on people’s defenses.”
Webb City built a 5-1 lead after plating single runs in the third and fourth courtesy the Cardinals’ execution of small ball. Parker singled leading off the third and came around to score on a Gayman sacrifice, then Jeremiah Learming reached on an infield single in the fourth and scored on a Parker sacrifice fly.
The Cardinals had their opportunities to increase their lead even more, though, but they stranded 10 runners overall, including the bases loaded in the fourth, as well as two runners in both the fifth and the seventh.
Listed at 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds in the program, junior Eric Fitch gave the Cardinals a Herculean performance on the mound. Fitch scattered three runs on five hits over five-plus innings; he pitched into the sixth and departed after surrendering a double to Nixa cleanup hitter Quinn Gundelfinger leading off.
“We’ve been talking about getting other people some innings,” Darnell said. “We were kinda hitter-by-hitter starting fourth inning and Eric kept himself in the game. Eric competed hard, he’s a competitor, and it was good to see to his outing today.”
Noel picked up the final six outs for the Cardinals — consecutive strikeouts swinging to get out of the sixth with that precarious two-run lead preserved and the Cardinals’ starting third baseman, momentum behind him, retired the side in the last-chance seventh.
“Shane definitely came into a tough situation,” Darnell said, “but Shane’s a competitor. We had a couple guys in the bullpen ready to go, so very happy with Shane. When he came in, once again, we were hitter-by-hitter and he kept himself in the game.”
The pitching combination of Fitch and Noel also worked the time before against Nixa in Webb City’s 7-4 win on Apr. 10. Fitch pitched the first three innings, Noel finished it out, and each pitcher allowed two runs, while the Cardinals exploded for six runs in the second in their three-run victory.
On Thursday, Nixa scored once in the second, the fourth, and the sixth, helped out by a balk in the second and a two-base throwing error in the fourth. Rylan Michel collected the Eagles’ lone RBI on the day with a single to score Gundelfinger in the sixth.
Junior catcher Jaret Nelson showed off a bit of his skills defensively and offensively, throwing out Fitch on an attempted steal of second in the second and connecting on a two-out two-strike double in the third.
Junior pitcher Sam Russo left the door open for a possible Nixa rally with three scoreless innings of relief.
