Portageville pitching depth proves valuable in title run through Malden tourney

It’s hard to pinpoint what was more impressive about the recent tear through the Malden Baseball Invitational Tournament by Portageville.

The Bulldogs (18-2) claimed the championship for the fourth consecutive year by winning four games in two days by a combined margin of 42-7.

Portageville, which is ranked No. 3 in Class 3, connected for 45 hits in the tournament, but perhaps more importantly, was the pitching depth that it showed over the two days.

“That is what is kind of neat about our team,” Bulldog coach Tyler Trover said recently, “this year, we do have a lot of pitching depth.”

Bulldog juniors Beau-Hunter Warren and Mason Adams combined for seven innings of work in the 10-2 opening win over Bernie.

Warren threw 91 pitches over five innings and gave up just one earned run and three walks.

He struck out five Mules and allowed as many hits.

“We can throw a lot of different guys out there,” Trover said.

Adams doesn’t pitch a ton, but he “pitches some,” according to Trover.

Against Bernie, Adams allowed one hit and struck out one, while giving up three hits. Most impressively, of Adams’ 20 pitches, 18 were strikes.

“We have a lot of guys that have pitched at a high level before,” Trover said.

In a 10-0 blanking of Doniphan, Portageville sophomore Huston Partin threw all five innings and allowed just four hits, and struck out seven Dons.

He didn’t walk a single batter and threw 43 strikes in 60 pitches.

“We’re still working through the high school stuff,” Trover continued. “Limiting walks, being able to throw off-speed pitches on fastball counts, and keeping people off balance.”

None of those things was too much of an issue for Bulldog senior Thomas Frakes, who dominated New Madrid County Central in a 15-0 thrashing.

Frakes gave up just one hit in three innings while walking two and striking out two.

In 43 pitches, he was able to throw 26 strikes.

In the tournament championship game, Portageville finally ran into a test in Scott City, which rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game in the fourth inning off of Portageville senior Trey Benthal. However, the Bulldog offense was able to answer in the 7-5 championship win.

“We really don’t have a ‘Hey, here comes 88 (m.p.h.),’” Trover explained, “but we have a lot of ‘Here is 75 to 83 or 84.’ We have a whole lot of that.”

Benthal gave up five earned runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings while striking out six Rams and walking three.

Only 55 of Benthal’s 96 pitches were for strikes.

Adams closed the title game over the final 1 2/3 innings and gave up just one hit while allowing no walks and striking out one.

“This is a solid staff for our size of school,” Trover said. “But we still have to keep really good teams off balance and do a good job of that.

“It’s a work in progress.”

The Bulldogs will host Campbell (2-5) today at Meatte Park at 6 p.m.