Steady bats help Clarion race by Karns City baseball
Clarion’s pitchers gave a little.
The Bobcat hitters took a lot.
Trailing 9-1 in the fourth inning Wednesday night at Pullman Park, Karns City pulled within three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Clarion answered with a five-spot in the top of the seventh to put away a 16-8 District 9 baseball victory.
“Karns City has a good team and they weren’t gonna go away,” Clarion coach Rob Jewett said. “We told our kids it was important to keep responding at the plate and we did that.”
The Bobcats (9-2) won their seventh straight game, banging out 18 hits. They hit safely in every inning.
Karns City hurlers Xavier Bartoe and Joey O’Donnell combined to throw 176 pitches. Bartoe threw 84 before being pulled with no outs in the fourth inning. O’Donnell threw 92 over the final four frames.
“Way too many,” Karns City coach Josh Smith said. “We were falling behind hitters and they were hitting with favorable counts. Give Clarion credit, though. They kept putting the ball in play, fouling off pitches, making us work.”
Clarion entered the game with a .356 team batting average. The first three hitters in the Bobcat lineup — Dylan Smail, Hayden Weber and Ethan Rex — combined to reach base 11 times, collecting eight hits, six runs and five RBIs.
Oddly enough, No. 4 hitter Wyatt Watterson went hitless on the night.
“Wyatt had an off-night, but we’re about picking each other up and that’s what we did tonight,” Jewett said. “We were patient at the plate, swung at good pitches all night. Our hitters did a great job.”
The Gremlins (8-8) took a 1-0 lead in the first inning without getting a hit. Camden Slater walked, moved to second on a passed ball, third on a wild pitch and scored on Tyson Frazer’s sacrifice fly.
By the time Karns City registered its first hit — an infield single by Colton Christie — the Gremlins were down eight runs on the scoreboard.
“We got started too late, gave away too many innings early,” KC shortstop Brock Dittman said. “We have to put complete games together. When we do that and cut down on mistakes, we’re a hard team to beat.
“I like the fight we showed in getting within three runs late. But we have to get started earlier.”
Trailing 11-5 entering the sixth, the Gremlins loaded the bases on singles by Brody Zediker and Slater, followed by a walk to O’Donnell. No hits followed, however, as Zediker scored on a wild pitch, Frazer delivered hs second sacrifice fly of the contest and O’Donnell crossed the plate on Cole Johnston’s groundout.
Clarion bunched together four hits, a walk and a hit batsman to score five times in the seventh.
Karns City committed five errors, hit three batters and walked three others.
“I have a lot of respect for Rob, he’s one of the best coaches in our league,” Smith said. “That team can really hit the ball, but our mistakes didn’t help matters any. We need to clean some things up.”
Clarion 024 320 5 — 16 18 0
Karns City 100 223 0 — 8 9 5
WP: Ethan Rex 4IP (6so, 4bb). LP: Xavier Bartoe 3IP (5so, 2bb).
Clarion (9-2): Dylan Smail 3B 1B 2-RBIs, Hayden Weber 2B 2-1B RBI 2-R, Ethan Rex 3B 2B 1B 2-RBIs 3-R, Wyatt Watterson 2-R, Parker Miller 3-1B 3-RBIs 2-R, Carter Hindman 2-2B 1B 3-RBIs 2-R, Gabe Anderson 2-1B RBI 2-R, Evan Kriebel 2B 1B RBI 2-R.
Karns City (8-8): Camden Slater 1B 2-R, Joey O’Donnell 1B 2-R, Tyson Frazer 2-RBI, Cole Johnston 1B 2-RBIs, Brock Dittman 1B, Colton Christie 2-1B, Xavier Bartoe 1B RBI, Bryce Galan 1B, Brody Zediker 1B.
Monday: Clarion-Limestone at Karns City
