Bernie BB has 'tough weekend,' but gets development out of it

For a little over a week, and through four games, the Bernie High School baseball squad had been cruising.

The Mules won all four contests over New Madrid County Central, Neelyville, Woodland, and Puxico, as they put across 37 runs in the process. However, Bernie dropped a couple of games on Saturday at Greenville High School, one against the host Bears 7-2, and later against Class 2 No. 4-ranked Portageville 11-3, and veteran Mule coach Marcus Massey wasn’t upset about the weekend.

“Honestly,” Massey said, “we are about right where we need to be. We started our season 4-0, and being young like we are, with just one senior (Jayden Robinett) who plays every day, and if you look at those 14 innings (this weekend), in nine of those innings, we were right there.”

Against Greenville (4-3), the Mules trailed just 3-1 midway through the fifth inning, before the hosts scored four runs in their final two at-bats.

“A couple of our young guys made some mistakes,” Massey said, “and they pushed it to seven.”

Mule sophomore Leightin Hicks threw well against the Bears, as he allowed six hits and just two earned runs through five innings while walking just one batter and striking out a couple.

“Leightin is just a sophomore,” Massey said, “and he is just a really good player.”

Hicks was also solid at the plate, as he notched one of the three Mule hits to go with a run and a walk.

Robinett scored a run and drew a walk while Taylor Stanfield (one hit, one RBI), Cade Arnold (two walks), and Jonah Copeland (one hit) also contributed.

Stanfield closed the game by working one inning and allowing one hit, no earned runs, one walk, and striking out a couple of batters.

Greenville got two hits from senior William Friley while Easton Evans, Talan McDaniel, Clayton Wood, Cooper Sturgeon, and Jackson Bollinger also tallied hits.

McDaniel threw 5 2/3 innings and gave up just two hits, one earned run while walking four and striking out six.

Against Portageville, Bernie led 3-1 after two innings, but the Bulldogs scored six combined runs in the third and fourth innings to put the game away.

“I told the team afterward,” Massey said, “that I know it was a tough weekend for us, as far as wins and losses, but I think we got more out of this than going and playing (a lesser) team that you know you can beat.”

Hicks had a couple of hits against the Bulldogs (7-3) while Robinett, Cody Massey, Stanfield, Brayden Vaughn, Arnold, and Cane Hobgood also added hits.

Robinett threw four innings in the start and allowed six hits, five earned runs, three walks, and struck out a pair of hitters.

Conner Johnson had a pair of hits for Portageville while Mason Adams (one hit, four RBI), Max Warren, Owen Roberts, Rylan Partin (one hit, two runs), Jayquan Bogan, and Xayvion Bogan (two hits, three RBI) also had hits.

Adams threw six innings and allowed three earned runs on eight hits and struck out eight.

Portageville topped Greenville in another game 8-6.

Portageville will host Holcomb (4-2) today at 4:30 p.m.

Greenville will host Senath-Hornersville (3-2) today at 4 p.m.

Bernie will visit Scott City (5-1) today at 4:30 p.m.