A big sixth inning rally by West Plains helped the Zizzers knock off the Lebanon Yellowjackets on Thursday and spoiled Senior Night at LHS with a 9-6 victory.
West Plains (13-6 overall, 5-4 Ozark Conference) scored five times in the sixth, including four runs with two outs, and erased a 5-2 Lebanon lead in the process. The Zizzers took advantage of some key miscues by the LHS infield and senior catcher Jake Quarti gave West Plains its first lead with a two-run single down the right field line.
The Zizzers added two runs in the seventh as Daniel Crewse led off for the second straight inning with a double, Blaine Dunbar reached on an infield error and Jacob Hess executed a hit-and-run play to score Crewse. Dunbar eventually came home on a ground out.
“When we are down like that and come back and score five in an inning, it just shows the resiliency of our team and what is possible when we put things together like we’re supposed to be,” West Plains head coach Chris Quarti said. “They did a good job.”
Lebanon opened the game by scoring a single run in the first, four more int he second and another run in the third and at one point held a 6-1 lead. Hess, who got the start on the mound for West Plains, didn’t get much help in the field as the Zizzers committed two errors in the first, another in the second and one more in the third.
West Plains got a big lift on the mound from sophomore Andrew Wheeler in relief as the right-hander threw four scoreless innings to record the win.
The win is the third straight for West Plains, and the Zizzers’ four OC losses have come by a total of five runs. West Plains also has league wins over Kickapoo, Rolla, Parkview and Waynesville.
“My (starting) pitcher got three easy ground balls that we booted around and they put a little pressure on him,” Quarti said. “It’s just one of those things in baseball that happens. We have to record outs when we’re offered them and he just couldn’t really recover. He wanted to strike everyone out to get the out and struggled a little on the hill.
“(Wheeler) did a good job of throwing strikes. We had way too many free passes from my first pitcher, but he did what he could and Wheeler did a good job of just recording outs.”
For the ‘Jackets, the loss is its second straight this week after dropping a key Ozark Conference game at Oley Scott Field on Tuesday to Glendale, 9-4.
“It has been a rough week and it is something that we talked to the boys about — we have to have a killer instinct and when we get up like we did, we have to keep pouring it on and that is something we haven’t been able to do the last couple of games,” Lebanon head coach Dustin Young said.
Things don’t figure to get any easier for LHS, who are looking not only get healthy on the field but off as well. The ‘Jackets are slated to face a pair of tough opponents on Saturday when they host Nixa and Carthage as part of the Lebanon/Marshfield Tournament.
Complicating matters has been a beat-up pitching staff that is currently without senior right Jordan Bailey and Luke Winfrey’s services on the mound. On Thursday, Young pulled senior starter Corey Dudley after five innings with less than 70 pitches thrown as a precautionary measure.
Dudley had mostly breezed through the West Plains lineup, retiring the final six batters he faced, including a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fifth. The Zizzers scored single runs in the third and fourth innings.
Lebanon head coach Dustin Young said Dudley felt some tightness in his should and opted to proceed with caution and went to the bullpen in the sixth inning.
“He felt something in his shoulder that wasn’t normal … ultimately, we decided to side on the side of caution,” Young said. “He was Corey Dudley tonight and it would have been nice to get more out of him but we have to look at the big picture. You have to keep his safety first and we decided to get him some rest and went with the staff that we have behind him.”
West Plains was slated to seed the Missouri Class 5 District 11 tournament on Friday. They will first compete in the Lebanon/Marshfield tournament, starting on Saturday. District 11 will be hosted by Branson and will also feature Glendale, Kickapoo, Nixa, Ozark and Parkview.
Lebanon (15-7, 5-4) is the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Missouri Class 5 District 10 tournament, which will be played at Willard. The ‘Jackets will first face Central at 1 p.m. on May 14.
