Tigers falter late, fall to Pattonville

A rough 7th inning proved to be the demise of the Cape Central Tigers as they fell 6-4 at the hands of the Pattonville Pirates on Saturday at Cape Central High School.

With the Tigers leading 3-1 entering the top of the 7th the Pirates would have the first three batters reach by hit by pitch, error and another error.

The second error of the inning allowed a run to cross to make it 3-2 Tigers.

The tying run would score after TJ Klipfel walked in a run on 5 pitches.

Pattonville’s Mason McFarland would rip a 1-out double down the left field line that scored 2 runs to give the Pirates a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Tigers coach Justin Lieser felt the team didn’t swing the bats well enough to come out with a win.

“We struck out way too much,” Lieser said. “We didn’t make the necessary adjustments at the plate to compete and to put the ball in play and in a wood bat game you have to to at least give yourself a chance and we didn’t do that enough today.”

All 4 of the Tigers’ runs were manufactured by moving station-to-station as Cape Central couldn’t come up with the big hit they needed.

“Wood bats have something to do with that,” Lieser said. “But, at the same time you only have two hits going into the bottom of the 7th, that’s not giving yourself a lot of opportunities to score.”

Getting the start on the mound was Jathan Spain who went 4 innings allowing 0 runs on 2 hits and 6 strikeouts.

Chapman Ogles backed up Spain in relief as he went 2 innings allowing 1 run on 3 hits.

Picking up RBIs for the Tigers in the loss were Carter Crosnoe, Cade Emmenderfer and Jathan Spain.

Cape Central (8-9) is now set to begin a 7 games in 7 days stretch that begins at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25 when the Tigers hit the road to take on the Perryville Pirates.

Following Tuesday’s game, the Tigers will be at Hillsboro on Wednesday, host Herculaneum on Thursday, play in the SEMO Conference Tournament on Friday and Saturday, play Chaffee at Busch Stadium on Sunday and round out the SEMO Conference Tournament on Monday.

“We just want to see how we deal with being put in tough situations,” Lieser said. “You kind of get a little more resilient when things don’t go your way.”