SEMO Pirates sunk in 10th inning of Charleston Fighting Squirrels Classic title game

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Although the Charleston Fighting Squirrels Classic championship was decided by just one run in the bottom of the 10th inning, the late innings of the game were not the most critical to the outcome, according to SEMO Pirates coach Jeremy McCain.

The Pirates, a Senior Babe Ruth team based out of Leopold, suffered a 10-9 setback in 10 innings against Crawford County on Saturday at Hillhouse Park in Charleston, and it was moments early in the game that McCain felt contributed greatly to his 18-2 team's second loss of the season.

"We just left a lot of guys on base," McCain said. "Didn't move them over, missed a lot of signs. When we should've tried to get one or two runs, we're hitting fly balls. Just stuff that we didn't do well."

The Pirates built up a 5-1 lead after three innings, but missed opportunities to put the game out of Crawford County's reach, and it erased the deficit in the top of the fourth.

With two outs, Taylor Thompson singled and Ryan Bouse doubled to left field after a walk.

Bouse raced around second on the throw home that wasn't in time and allowed both runners to score, and Pirates catcher Logan Carter threw to third. Bouse was ruled safe on the close play. Crawford scored twice after that on hits to make it 5-5.

"I'm never going to say it's a bad call," McCain said with a laugh. "Those guys are human. A ball beats him by that much you usually expect to get that call there, I guess. The ball beats him by a step, Landon puts the glove down right in the middle of it, and he says he misses the tag. I mean, that's a tough one. Puts two guys on second and third, next guy hits a ball.

"That's probably -- you don't want to say that's the game there, but that's a tough one right there. That probably gets Blake out of it and he might stay in the game one more inning out of him there, which is what we were trying to do. We were trying to ride five out of him there. That was a big play."

The Pirates' Austin Bucher scored to put team back in front in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly to left field. After he scored, Audie Hay was thrown out at third after tagging up to end the inning.

The Pirates maintained the lead until the sixth inning when a run scored when a routine grounder rolled between shortstop Garrett Potts' legs.

"We missed a lot of signs early," McCain said. "That third out at third base there [in the fourth] when we're hitting the tar out of the ball, you know, we're hitting that kid really well, and we try to tag up on a ball to left field. Not really what you want to do there. I think we lost that game early. We deserved to be where we were at, that's for sure."

Crawford took the lead for good in the top of the 10th inning after scoring four runs but not without a response from the Pirates in their half of the frame.

Tyson Campbell and Brad Freed singled before a Landon Johnson double made it 10-7.

Freed scored on a 4-3 groundout and Johnson scored when Jacob Trammel grounded to short.

"After those first couple runs we thought we had a comeback coming, but then again the shortstop Taylor Thompson made a really good play and got the second out and that kind of killed us," Carter said. "But we just kept on fighting until the end."

Bucher then reached first when the first baseman dropped a ball thrown to him.

"All I could think of was 'One out at a time,'" Crawford County coach Dave Wild said. "I know the first two or three guys get on, we've got to chip away, get one out at a time. That four-run cushion in the top of the 10th was huge for us. You know, I was happy scoring one, two, but that four-spot really put us in a spot to where a guy that threw Friday for us could open up and [pitcher Ryan Bouse] could go another one, maybe two. He gave me everything he had today. He's a bulldog, doesn't overpower guys, but he hits his spots and he's a nasty dealer."

Hay worked a 2-2 count before a called third strike ended the game.

"Just show a little heart here," McCain said he told his players after the top of the 10th inning. "You know, see what we can muster up and not lay down right here."

Crawford 001 401 000 4 -- 10 18 4

SEMO 311 100 000 3 -- 9 12 4

WP -- Ryan Bouse. LP -- Jacob Clark. 3B -- Brad Freed (S), Austin Bucher (S), Brendan Wild (C). 2B -- Tyson Campbell (S), Landon Johnson 2 (S), Ryan Bouse 2 (C), Wild (C), Lane Becker (C). Multiple hits -- SEMO: Campbell 2-5, Freed 2-5, Johnson 3-5, Bucher 3-5. Crawford: Taylor Thompson 3-6, Bouse 4-6, Mason Price 2-6, Wild 4-6, Caleb Parry 2-6, Becker 2-4.