Cherokees' rally comes up short

The SEMO Cherokees 17-and-under baseball team came up one bad half-inning and one hit shy of a victory in the SEMO Invitational on Friday.

The Cherokees overcame a five-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the game to an extra inning but eventually lost 13-12 to American Eagle West at Whitey Herzog Stadium.

Most of the American Eagle West's offense came in a nine-run third inning. Cherokees starter and Perryville High School student Ross Moldenhaur struck out the first batter of the inning before the next seven batters reached base.

"We had an inning where they just beat us," Cherokees coach Jerry Kratochvil said. "They got nine runs in the [third] inning and we didn't make an error. We only hit one and walked one, so they earned it. We just couldn't get them out. A couple of them were bloopers, but for the most part they hit the ball hard."

Moldenhaur, who was relieved with two outs in the inning after facing 10 batters, said poor location was his demise.

"I was just missing with my fastball and I was hanging the curveball -- just missing with everything," he said. "I didn't have anything today."

The long inning meant a lot of time spent in the midday sun for the Cherokees and a daunting 10-3 deficit to overcome.

"The heat makes it tough," Kratochvil said. "It makes it tough and that's why I was really proud of our guys. When you get down 10-3, it's easy to roll over under any conditions. And with it 95 and hot, we could have quit, and we didn't, so I thought that was pretty resilient on our part."

The Cherokees scored two runs in the bottom of the third, and reliever Trey Martin held American Eagle West scoreless through the top of the seventh.

Four of the first five Cherokees batters reached base in the bottom of the seventh. With one run already home, leadoff man and Central student Austin Davis represented the tying run at the plate with the bases loaded.

Davis lifted a ball into the left-center field gap that hung in the air long enough for both outfielders to try to make a play, but the center fielder's dive landed without the ball in his glove.

Davis ended up with a three-run triple and scored when he was able to distract American Eagle West's third baseman on teammate Brady Wright's grounder to third.

"Coach told me before that pitch that if it was a ground ball to the third baseman try to fake home, so I did it and it worked the first time so I just kept doing it and he kept looking at me," Davis said. "I forced him to make the throw, and then when it went bad, I just scored."

Davis' run tied the game 10-10, but Wright was stranded on base after the Cherokees sandwiched an intentional walk to Oak Ridge all-stater Brett Thomas with ground outs.

After giving up three runs in the top of the eighth, the Cherokees got one more chance in the bottom of the inning, but they stranded the tying run on second base.

"I loved our fight," Thomas said.