Oran baseball comes from behind to beat Scott City

ORAN, Mo. -- It all came down to one final at-bat in a tie game between the Oran and Scott City baseball teams.

With two outs and two Eagles on base, third baseman Jacob Priggel sent a ground ball to short.

In a close call at first base, Priggel was ruled safe and Preston Hahn plated the winning run to give Oran a 7-6 walk-off win at home on Wednesday.

"I just knew I had to put the ball on the ground, put the ball in play -- and I did, I hustled out," Priggel said. "I don't know. I just tried as best as I could to get there."

Scott City coach Jim May questioned the call on the field, but said afterward that the game didn't come down to just that one call.

"We made a lot of mistakes," May said. "I told them, 'We can complain that we got maybe a bad call at the end, but we didn't play well enough in the earlier times to win the game.' We should've won the game handily and we didn't."

Oran improved to 4-3 with the win while Scott City fell to 3-5.

The Eagles did not plate a run until the fourth inning and trailed 6-2 heading to the bottom of the sixth inning.

"It wasn't exactly how we drew it up, but we'll take them any way we can get them," first-year Oran coach Kody Campbell said. "I told my kids after the game, 'You know, baseball's crazy like that.' They could've easily folded, thrown in the towel there when it was 6-2 in the sixth, but we kept fighting and kept putting together competitive at-bats. We got a few breaks there in the last couple innings and we were fortunate enough to come out with a win."

A four-run sixth inning knotted the game 6-all.

After an error and a double, Oran starting pitcher Seth Ressel flied out to center to score first baseman Dustin Gebhardt.

Scott City pitcher Braden Cox throws a strike to Oran pitcher Seth Ressel in the first inning Wednesday at Oran High School. (Adam Vogler)

Second baseman Ben Heuring followed that up with a base hit to drive in Hahn. Heuring scored the third run of the inning on a Hunter Schlosser base hit.

The tying run crossed when designated hitter Tanner McVay drew a bases-loaded walk.

Scott City didn't threaten in the top of the seventh, with only Eric Urhahn reaching base on a ball that was bobbled by the second baseman.

In Oran's half of the inning, Hahn reached first after the third baseman struggled to field and then overthrew the ball to first, and Ressel drew a walk before Priggel's game-winning hit.

"Honestly, Preston Hahn, if you've seen us play at all or know anything about him, he's not a nine-hole hitter," Campbell said. "But we put him down there for that reason, to have some guys on base when the top of our order comes up because we feel like if we can get him on then Seth's a good hitter, he can get on and then we've got the guys in the middle that have a chance to drive in some runs."

Priggel said he knew that he and his teammates were capable of making a comeback in games, but it's something that they've struggled with this season.

Campbell was quick to credit Rams' starting pitcher Braden Cox for stalling the Eagle's offense early.

"We had chances in the first several innings that we didn't capitalize on maybe as well as we should have, but you've got to tip your cap to their pitcher," Campbell said. "That kid was a pretty good pitcher and he had three pitches that he threw for a strike and wasn't scared to throw them in any count. That's tough, especially in high school -- that's tough -- to get your guys prepared for.

"But we did a good job. We kept fighting, we kept putting together tough at-bats. That's one of my things -- I tell my kids all the time, 'As long as there's outs left in the game, we've still got a shot.' Fortunately today we got a couple breaks and we got a couple bounces and were able to come away with one."

Cox pitched 5 2/3 innings, struck out four batters and gave up seven hits. Ressel started on the mound for Oran and pitched 5 1/3 innings, striking out five and giving up 10 hits.

Both teams struggled defensively, combining for 13 errors in the game.

May said his players just made some mental mistakes, and not having been able to practice much outside due to weather might have had something to do with it.

"We're going to get some time out on the field, and we'll work on some things and get better," May said. "We're young, but that's no excuse. We've just got to get better."

Scott City 001 203 0 -- 6 10 7

Oran 000 114 1 -- 7 8 6

WP -- Preston Hahn. LP -- Jordan Kluesner. 2B -- Braden Cox, Eric Urhahn, Dustin Gebhardt, Preston Hahn. Multiple hits -- Scott City: Cox 2-4, Dylan Menz 2-4; Oran: Ben Heuring 2-5, Jacob Priggel 2-4. Records -- Scott City 3-5, Oran 4-3.