Capahas baseball downs St. Louis Bulls to remain undefeated

No matter that the Burger King Capahas are undefeated, manager Jess Bolen is unconvinced that he’s seen the team play anywhere close to what its capable of.

He was happy with his team’s 9-1 victory over the St. Louis Bulls on Friday night at Capaha Field, but not satisfied, even as they ran their record to 5-0 early in the season.

“We’ve not began to jel,” Bolen said. “We’ve got sporadic hitting up and down the lineup. Someday somebody will have a good day and the next game they won’t and maybe somebody else does. And we’re young. We’ve got a lot of junior college guys.

The Capahas' Brady Wright pitches to a St. Louis Bulls batter in the fourth inning Friday, June 17, 2016 at Capaha Field.GLENN LANDBERG ~ glandberge@semissourian.com

“The competition at the end [at the NBC World Series] — I know what it is and we’re a long ways from being there. But in that same token, that’s what you use the season to get better and build on and try to be the team at the end of the season that you project. We’re a long ways from that.”

Chase Urhahn, a newcomer to the team, said it feels like “now we’re starting to roll.”

The Capahas, who had opened their season with a 10-2 victory over the Bulls on June 6, trailed 1-0 going to the bottom of the fourth inning.

St. Louis had plated the first run of the game in the top half of the inning on a fielder’s choice.

Josh Haggerty led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple to right and scored to tie it on a sacrifice fly by Adam Connor.

The Capahas added four runs in the fifth, taking the lead for good when Cam Womack scored from third on a wild pitch.

Tyler Qualls added an RBI triple, Connor had an RBI single and another run scored when the second baseman dropped a popup in shallow right.

The hosts extended their lead to 7-1 in the sixth, with Drew Morecraft driving in Womack with a sacrifice fly and Qualls plating Urhahn from first with a double to left.

Womack hit a two-run triple in the seventh to set the final score. It was the Capahas’ third triple of the game. They finished with 15 hits — Urhahn and Qualls had three apiece and Connor and Womack each had two.

The Bulls recorded seven hits in the contest. Lance Young started and pitched three scoreless innings for the Capahas, allowing two hits and striking out five.

Brady Wright earned the win in relief. He allowed the only run and gave up three hits in three innings while striking out six.

Ebon Brooks allowed two hits in two innings and struck out three.

“All you can do is go out and get an out,” Bolen said. “I’m satisfied with the way the guys pitched. You give up one run in nine innings, you did a good job.”

Former Southeast Missouri State shortstop Kenton Parmley, who’d played the last few seasons with the Capahas, threw on Bolen’s No. 22 jersey and took the mound in a 1-2-3 top of the ninth.

“He tells me, ‘Your last year I just wanted to take the field one time,’” Bolen said. “He said, ‘I probably can’t play no more ever.’”

The Capahas will face the Bulls again at 7:30 p.m. Monday in St. Louis before traveling to Waterloo on Wednesday.

The Bulls are back in town next Friday for a single game and a doubleheader Saturday.

“We’ve got a lot of athletes on our team that have been playing for a long time and the pitching and the hitting’s both there this year,” Urhahn said. “We’re putting up a lot of runs and it’s real fun. It’s a good experience.”

Bulls 000 100 000 — 1 7 1

Capahas 000 142 20X — 9 15 1

WP — Brady Wright. LP — Ryan Wills. 2B — Taron Roberts (B), Tyler Qualls (C), Alex Heuring (C). 3B — Qualls (C), Josh Haggerty (C), Cam Womack (C). Multiple hits — Bulls: Roberts 2-4; Capahas: Chase Urhahn 3-5, Qualls 3-5, Adam Connor 2-3, Womack 2-3.