Bell City baseball team edges Chaffee in extra innings again, takes tourney title

OAK RIDGE, Mo. -- If we've learned one thing in the first portion of the baseball season, it's that there's not much separating Bell City and Chaffee. On Saturday that slim margin was equal to a few inches of a glove on top of a fence.

After the Cubs dropped the Red Devils 1-0 in eight innings back on March 23, the two sides again needed extra innings to decide things, as a two-run home run by Cole Nichols in the top of the eighth inning sent Bell City past Chaffee 4-2 in the championship game of the Oak Ridge Invitational on Saturday afternoon.

Nichols took a two-out, 1-0 pitch to left field, where the ball appeared to make contact with the glove of left fielder Austin Copeland as he reached over the fence to try to haul it in. Copeland collided with the fence, the ball ended up on the other side and Nichols rounded the bases to put his side up by two runs -- good enough for another gritty victory over the Red Devils.

"It was kind of right there and it kind of looked like [it went off the glove]. It collided. I can't say 100 percent, but it looked like it did hit the glove," Bell City coach Justin Simpher said. "[Copeland] went right at it, didn't worry about nothing and went to make a play. He's a good ball player and he went hard after the ball like he's supposed to.

"We just kept working and kept battling. I felt like we never got flustered and just stayed in the game and kept trying to battle our way back. We got in a hole early and found a way to tie it up, and then we just kept putting runners on, got some pressure and got a big hit there at the end. Good pitching by both teams, good defense, and when you do that you have good baseball games."

Tied at 2 after four innings, Chaffee (9-3) had an opportunity to end things in the bottom of the seventh, but instead stranded a pair of runners in scoring position.

The Red Devils again saw opportunity in front of them in the bottom of the eighth, after giving up the lead, when they loaded the bases with just one out. Three straight singles -- from Copeland, Kade Sullivan and Breven Yarbro -- put the ducks on the pond, but Bell City (8-2) reliever Peyton Maddox struck out T.J. Archer before inducing a ground ball to end the game.

Maddox got the win in 1 1/3 innings of work.

"We've got kids at the plate with opportunities, and you've just got to tip your hat," Chaffee coach Brian Horrell said. "Their pitcher made pitches and their defense made plays behind them.

"That's a quality ball club and we feel like we've got us a good ball club, too. I thought we battled tooth and nail all day again, kind of the same situation as the last time we battled -- a tie game going into the eighth inning and you've just got to tip your hat to them. We didn't duck our head there when we gave up those two runs. We came in and loaded the bases and had the winning run at first. We battled, we just didn't get the result we wanted."

Landon Tenkhoff took the loss for Chaffee in relief, giving up two runs on two hits in three innings, with six strikeouts and two walks.

Copeland started for the Red Devils, lasting five innings and giving up two runs -- one earned -- on seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks.

"I thought Copeland threw the ball well today and I thought Tenkhoff threw extremely well," Horrell said. "That's the same two kids we threw at them last time and almost chopped up about the same amount of pitches, but it's just one of those things. They were just the better ball club today."

Bobby Wright got the start on the mound for the Cubs and went 6 2/3 strong innings, giving up two runs on five hits with 11 strikeouts and two walks. When he crossed the 100-pitch mark and started laboring with two outs in the seventh, Simpher went to Maddox.

"I thought on the mound he threw great," Simpher said. "All his pitches were working good and he was always around the plate. Then we had to put him in to catch and he goes in there and gives our pitchers confidence and came up with some big blocks when we needed to throw some pitches in the dirt. ... All the way around he did a good job for us."

Chaffee found it difficult to gain any traction on Wright after the first inning, when Gabe Henson got a one-out base hit up the middle for the Red Devils in the bottom of the first, Wright issued a two-out walk to Copeland and Kade Sullivan slapped a double into left field to score both runners and give his side a 2-0 lead.

After that, Wright began to cruise. He faced just two runners over the minimum through the next four innings, and one of those reached on a fifth-inning error.

The Cubs got on the board in the third frame, as an inning-opening error put a runner on base before Maddox singled up the middle to cut the gap to 2-1.

An inning later, Bell City got an infield single from Jesse Smith before Brandon Abner plated his teammate with a double to left-center to knot things at 2.

Bell City threatened to take the lead in the top of the seventh thanks to singles from Nate Finney and Wright, but Tenkhoff got a called third strike to end the inning unscathed.

Then it was all about missed opportunities for Chaffee and a few inches by the left-field fence.

"The game of baseball, you just never know," Simpher said. "You never know what's going to happen."

Nichols finished 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored for the victors. Finney went 3-for-4 with a stolen base and Smith was 2-for-4 with a run scored.

The Red Devils were paced by a 3-for-4 day from Sullivan, who doubled and drove in two. Copeland was 2-for-3 with a run scored.

"Baseball is a very, very mentally challenging game and a game of failure and you've got to stay mentally strong," Horrell said. "We had opportunities all day long and we just didn't cash in, and they made some nice plays. It was just a quality high school baseball game and unfortunately we're just going to have to keep battling until we find a way to win one."

Bell City 001 100 02 -- 4 10 2

Chaffee 200 000 00 -- 2 8 2

WP -- Peyton Maddox. LP -- Landon Tenkhoff. 2B -- Brandon Abner (BC), Kade Sullivan (CH). HR -- Cole Nichols (BC). Multiple hits -- Bell City: Nate Finney 3-4, Jesse Smith 2-4, Nichols 2-5; Chaffee: Sullivan 3-4, Copeland 2-3.