Scott City baseball team holds on to edge Kelly 6-5

Proceed at your own risk.

That was the message the Scott City Rams sent to the Kelly Hawks base runners in the first inning when Trent Pobst lasered a throw from near the fence in left field to second base on Kyle Fitzgerald's RBI single in the bottom of the first inning.

Fitzgerald was hoping for more, but came up well short in his quest for a double.

It also was the Rams' parting message, with third baseman Caden Hillemann doing the mailing -- once again to retire Fitzgerald, who was trying to score the game-tying run in the bottom of the seventh at Scott City High School .

Hawk teammates Ty Householder and Jacob McClain had already crossed the plate on a two-out, bases-loaded single by Levi Alsup, and when the low throw to third to catch Fitzgerald bounced away from Hillemann, the Hawks' first baseman made the turn and tried to score.

Hillemann, who had completed a 1-5-3 double play in the second and started the seventh inning by booting a ball but still had enough time to nip the runner at first, recovered quickly and displayed his strong, accurate arm one final time, throwing out Fitzgerald by a comfortable margin and preserving a 6-5 victory for the Rams.

"A lot of our team can pitch," said Hillemann, about the strong arms displayed in the win.

In a game the Rams were outhit 10-9, all of the Hawks' hits went for singles. That in part was due to Pobst, who also uncorked a throw that may have cut down a runner at the plate were it not cut off. He also unleashed a strong, accurate throw from the left-field line to hold a wise runner at first base on what looked like a double from the start in the seventh.

"Cannon," is how Kelly coach Justin McAlister described Pobst's right arm after the game. "I didn't realize how good his arm was till today. We found out in a hurry how good his arm was when he threw our runner out at second."

The array of arms featured starting pitcher Jordan Kluesner, who struck out nine Hawks in a complete-game performance in his first win this season.

"I think if that one would have come through he would have been out at the plate, but it was cut off," Scott City coach Jim May said, talking about the arm possessed by Pobst. "Jordan has a good arm, Braden [Cox] has a good arm, DK [Dylan Keller] has a good arm, Caden has a good arm, Ty [Wilthong] has a good arm. We've got a good group of baseball players right now, we've just got to not do silly things to beat ourselves."

The Rams, the Class 3 state runner-up last year, didn't beat themselves, in part due to overall speed, which seems to be as pervasive as the strong arms.

Scott City used that speed to leg out three infield singles, pull off some daring base running in a four-run fourth and to extricate themselves from a couple blunders on the paths as well.

While his own team fell to 1-4, McAlister was left appreciating the attributes possessed by the Rams, who ended his team's season last year in the championship game of the Class 3 District 2 tournament.

"You're always giving yourself a chance," McAlister said. "Like I said, athleticism, sometimes, you can't coach it. You just roll it out there and hope at some point it takes over, and it does in most cases, especially at the high school level. They're a good baseball team."

Which was part of the reason why May wasn't' particularly pleased after his team improved to 6-2 and 1-0 in the Scott-Mississsippi Conference. It came despite four fielding errors, including two in the seventh inning.

"It's hard to be too upset with a win, but I want to play better," May said. "I've been telling them all along, you're going to get everybody's best, and that's probably not going to be good enough."

The Rams also emerged victorious despite a nine-strikeout, complete-game performance from Kelly ace Ty Householder, who walked only two batters.

"There was a pretty good duel on the mound," May said. "We have to do a better job of catching the ball, and we have to do a better job of running the bases.

"Kluesner ran threw a stop sign and should have been out. We got lucky, but that's not necessarily good. We missed a couple when we were trying to send them, and we almost got picked off trying to sacrifice bunt. Just silly things like that we shouldn't do."

Kelly, which fell to 1-4 and 1-2 in the conference, also had its share of mistakes but staked Householder to a 3-0 lead over the first three innings, with Fitzgerald delivering RBI hits in the first and third innings.

A combination of Rams speed and Kelly defensive miscues turned the tide of the game in the fourth inning. Householder struck out the side in the frame, but he had to deal with 10 Scott City 10 batters in an inning that produced four runs and gave Scott City a lead it wouldn't relinquish.

After Householder fanned the first batter, Kluesner started the rally by beating out a roller to the left side. Ty Wilthong followed with a single, and Dylan Keller popped the first of his two RBI doubles to cut the lead to 3-1. Wilthong scored when a high pop fly off the bat of Hillemann was dropped behind first base, and Keller then beat a throw home with a head-first slide on a ground ball hit by No. 9 hitter Isiah Berry to the third baseman to tie the score.

After Householder recorded his second strikeout of the frame, No. 2 hitter Hunter Copeland beat out a grounder to the shortstop, scoring Hillemann from third.

"We had our guy on the mound, and he threw phenomenal --- honestly, probably should have won 3-0," McAlister said. "We had the dropped pop up at first, the misplay at third where we had the runner thrown out at the plate and it one-hopped [the catcher]."

Kelly saw potential threats fizzle in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The fourth inning ended with an 8-6 forceout at second when No. 9 hitter Mitchell Proctor dumped an apparent single into center field. In the fifth, the Hawks had a runner at third with one out but took two called third strikes on curveballs by Kluesner.

Alsup, who went 3-for-4, led off the Kelly sixth with a single and moved up to second with nobody out but went no further as Kluesner notched his final two strikeouts.

Scott City, which was the visitor because of wet field conditions at the Hawks' home field in Benton, Missouri, added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh on a two-out double by Keller down the right-field line to move ahead 6-3. The double chased home Drew Short, who had reached on an infield single, and Kluesner, who walked on a close 3-2 pitch.

"We just couldn't grab the third out, but championship teams like that, they find a way," McAlister said. "We struggle with it right now, but we'll figure it out."

Scott City figured it out in the home half -- barely.

The Hawks had a runner on first with two outs in the seventh, but stayed alive when McClain nubbed a roller that eluded a diving Kluesner and was fumbled by the second baseman. Fitzgerald then hit a similar ball that Kluesner flubbed to load the bases for Alsup, who sent the game-ending play in motion with a single to right field.

"I think our guys are scared to fail," McAlister said. "And if you're scared to fail, you're not going to have success. I'm trying to get that out of them. Come May, with our schedule as tough as it is, hopefully we're ready to go and we get these guys again."

Scott City 000 400 2 -- 6 9 4

Kelly 102 000 2 -- 5 10 3

WP -- Jordan Kluesner. LP -- Ty Householder. 2B -- Dylan Keller 2 (SC). Multiple hits -- Scott City Braden Cox 2-4, Dylan Keller 2-4; Kelly: Householder 2-4, Kyle Fitzgerald 2-4, Levi Alsup 3-4.