Suspensions, miscues add to Tigers' dilemma

It was another setback that left Central coach Steve Williams thumbing through an emotional thesaurus.

"Frustrated, disappointed, disturbed," Williams said, trying to pin down his state of mind after a 5-2 defeat Thursday at home to Kelly.

There was no doubt the Tigers were a struggling baseball team after their fifth straight loss.

Central (4-11, 3-4 SEMO conference) played without two of its top players -- Mitch Craft and Marcus Klund -- suspended earlier in the day for violating undisclosed team citizenship guidelines.

As for the game itself, the Tigers pretty much held true to form from a game-opening error to a game-ending bases-loaded flyout.

The Tigers weren't without a few bright spots. Tough-luck loser John Thies struck out 10 Hawks and leadoff man Seth Hudson went 3-for-4, while Aaron Dohogne and Patrick Slattery both had a pair of hits. But no other Tigers had a hit and a multitude of mistakes loomed over the good.

"We simply, right now, are not able to make plays or hit the ball," Williams said. "You're going to get beat when you play like that. I don't care who you're playing. And that's not taking any one thing away from Kelly. They made the plays when they had to and they got the hits when they needed to. And that's the difference."

Kelly (6-7, 1-6), winners of three of its last four, produced 10 hits, but drove in just two of its runs. The Tigers fueled the Hawks' run production with two two-out errors in the fifth inning when Kelly broke a 1-1 tie. The first was a routine grounder to third that was booted to load the bases. The second was a short flip by Hudson at shortstop to second baseman Chris Conrad that was missed, allowing two runs to score.

"They made a few mistakes and we came up big on them," Kelly coach John Gandt said. "At this level of high school ball, things like that happen every day. If you can capitalize on those, that's the ticket."

After scoring a run in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by Dohogne, the Tigers had a chance to take the lead in the sixth. After Slattery led off with a single, Chris Daniel sacrificed and both runners were safe when Kelly reliever Chase Deason tried unsuccessfully to cut down the lead runner. But Central failed to take advantage as Clay Schermann struck out trying to bunt and Mark Dunaway bounced into a double play.

Kelly picked up two insurance runs in the seventh, one scoring on a Tiger error, for a 5-2 lead.

Central then loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh with one out, but came away empty. Deason escaped the jam with a strikeout and flyout.

"We're not getting the big hits and making the plays," Hudson said. "Every time we make a mistake we give up runs. And we get in situations where they make the plays we should be making. That's just how it goes sometimes. We can still turn it around. We just need people to step up."

Staked to a 1-0 lead in the first, Thies (2-6) was cruising early, obtaining seven of the first eight outs by strikeout. Drew Moore got the first hit off Thies with two outs in the third.

Kendal Deason had an RBI single in the fourth, one of three hits in the inning, to tie the score 1-1.

Moore and Jared Staggs each had two hits for Kelly. Starter Jason Kell (1-3) picked up his first win, allowing six hits in five innings.

"The good thing is we get to play again tomorrow and we'll find some kids that want to play," Williams said. "Rain or shine we'll try to get better."

Craft and Klund will meet with school administration today to determine their status with the team.