Delta C-7 (Deering) runs into Cooter's buzzsaw

DEERING,Mo. - Delta C7 going into Wednesday was about to play its fifth game in the last four days, two on the 16th, one each on the 18th, 19th (0-4) and then Cooter (1-0) on the 20th.

Delta had allowed 32 runs in those four games and the runs allowed spiral got even worse on Wednesday.

Cooter was still very early in their season with one impressive win at home versus Hayti winning 7-0 last Monday.

After both teams quickly went down in the first innings Wednesday with four of the six batters retired on strike outs, the first two batters for Cooter in the second were retired on a ground out to third and a strike out.

It looked like Cooter had left their bats at home against Hayti.

But the sixth man in the batting order, the first of the Snyder brothers, was hit by a pitch and that spiral runs allowed reared its ugly head again with the next six men for Cooter all reaching base safely, on five wild pitches, four stolen bases and three walks mixed in.

With the inning ending on a solid base hit to right by Cooter's pitcher, King, where the runner on first tried to reach third and was gunned down, tons of damage had been done to the tune of five runs scored.

The aforementioned King for the Wildcats was as impressive on the mound as he was at the plate.

Delta C-7 on the mound.Photo by Tim Caldwell

He followed his first inning mastery with three strikeouts. The Cougars were shell shocked on both sides after two innings trailing 5-0 and hitless at the plate.

The misery continued for Delta C-7 when the first batter for Cooter, who bats cleanup, reached on an error by the right fielder, and 11 batters later, six runs had scored on only 1 hit, with three walks, two hit batters and two wild pitches thrown in by two different pitchers for C7. Add in four stolen bases by Cooter, and after two and half innings, it was ugly at 11-0 Cooter.

To make things even worse for C7, King continued his dominance, retiring the first batter in the bottom of the third to extend his streak to seven batters in a row.

That streak was ended by an error by his second baseman to allow C7 their first batter to reach only to see King pick him off of first base and strike out the ninth place hitter to face the minimum through three innings.

The nightmare for C7 reached its apex when Cooter sent 17 men to the plate in the fourth inning scoring 11 runs on 8 hits, 5 walks plus one hit batter.

After 3-1/2 innings of play, the score ballooned to 22-0.

After King pitched a 1,2,3, bottom of the 4th, facing the minimum of 12 batters in that span, the 15-run mercy rule was invoked, ending the game after four innings. Cooter faces Naylor at 4:30 p.m. on April 2.