Fill-in starter excels in Oran baseball team's win vs. Chaffee

ORAN, Mo. -- When Oran sophomore Kody Moore experienced some soreness in his shoulder while warming up to face Chaffee on Friday, Eagles coach Mitch Wood turned to senior Zac Chasteen.

Chasteen responded with his first complete-game win of the season, a 3-2 victory over the Red Devils.

"He did a great job, I thought," Wood said about Chasteen. "He basically made one bad pitch on that one RBI. The rest of the game he did great, especially because he knew about 20 minutes before the game he was pitching."

Chasteen gave up just three hits and struck out six while walking five.

"It's probably the best I've felt in a couple years now," said Chasteen, who was hindered by injury last season. "Everything worked. All my pitches worked. I left a few over the middle, but other than that it was a great job, I think."

Oran's Zac Chasteen (12) approaches home plate, where his teammates are waiting to celebrate, after Chasteen hit a home run against Chaffee during the third inning Friday in Oran, Mo. (BRENT SHIPMAN ~ Sikeston Standard Democrat)

Chaffee (16-4) put two runners on base with just one out in the top of the first inning, but Chasteen induced a 6-4-3 double play to prevent the Red Devils from taking an early lead.

"That's big," Wood said. "That's real big. Before when we've been playing well, our defense has been helping us out a lot, and it did the same thing again. So that was a big play."

Oran (16-1) took advantage of its scoring opportunity in the bottom half of the inning when Nolan Urhahn's two-out double off Chaffee starter Alex Davie brought home two runs.

"It was pretty great," Urhahn said. "It came off the bat and I was really excited. I didn't know what to do. I thought he caught it at first, but I went to two. I thought I was going to be out, but I wasn't, so I was pretty happy."

Chasteen provided what proved to be the winning run with a leadoff homer in the third inning.

Oran starting pitcher Zac Chasteen delivers a pitch to a Chaffee batter during Friday's game.

"It felt good because -- I'm not saying it won us the game because Nolan had great RBIs, but it definitely helped," Chasteen said. "It feels good."

Freshman Cody Payne relieved Davie after four innings. Davie, a junior left-hander, gave up three runs on four hits and six walks while Payne did not allow a hit in his two innings of work.

"He wasn't as sharp as he usually is, but he's been one of our best all year long," Chaffee coach Brian Horrell said about Davie. "He did a great job of settling down and holding them at bay pretty well and gave us a chance to get back in it. He just got his pitch count up.

"Coming into the game, if you would've told me we'd hold them to three, I would've liked our chances. It's just we didn't come through when we had opportunities, and you've got to give them credit for that. They had something to do with us not coming through with our opportunities."

Chaffee got its first run in the fourth inning with the help of two Oran errors. First, a botched rundown allowed Chaffee baserunners to advance to second and third then a fielding error allowed a run to score.

"I kind of get a little excited when that stuff happens," Chasteen said. "I just have to take a second, take a deep breath and get right back in it."

Payne drove in the Red Devils' second run with a double on an 0-2 pitch in the fifth.

"I threw a changeup and I left it right down the middle," Chasteen said. "It was a bad pitch. I should've thrown it in the dirt or way outside. I just missed location, and he got a hold of it. He did a great job today."

Payne, who was 2 for 4 at the plate, was the only Chaffee player to get a hit with a runner in scoring position in four opportunities, while Oran was 2 for 6 in those situations.

"They got their timely hits, and we didn't get ours," Payne said. "The scoreboard would've been a whole lot different had we got our hits when we got runners in scoring position. They got their hits in times that they needed it, and we didn't."

Chaffee 000 110 0 -- 2 3 0

Oran 201 000 X -- 3 4 2

WP -- Zac Chasteen. LP -- Alex Davie. HR -- Chasteen (O). 2B -- Cody Payne (C), Nolan Urhahn (O). Multiple hits -- Chaffee: Payne 2-4; Oran: Moore 2-4. Records -- Chaffee 16-4, Oran 16-1.