Baseball swept at showcase

The Oran High School baseball team dropped a pair of one-run decisions during Saturday's 7th annual Notre Dame High School baseball showcase.

The Eagles lost 5-4 to Jackson and 3-2 to Notre Dame.

In game one, Oran got a leadoff walk by Layne Johnson,  Drew Reischman would single him to third and he advanced to second on the throw with one out, but they could not score.

That would be a reoccurring theme throughout the game.

Jackson would score a run in the bottom half.  A two-out walk, would steal second and third and score on a passed ball.

The Eagles stranded two more in the third and another two in the fourth.

The Indians would plate three more in the fourth.  They used a triple and a sacrifice fly.  Then a two-out single was followed by an error and a double and Jackson led 4-0.

In the fifth Jackson scored again.  A leadoff triple came home on a one-out single, to make it 5-0.

The Eagles refused to give up, however, with two down in the seventh.  Johnson reached on an infield error.  Todd Priggel singled and Reischman walked to load the bases.  Clay Sauceda then drilled a 3-1 pitch over the left-center field fence to make it 5-4, but that's where the rally ended

Priggel(2-2) went five innings on the mound to take the loss.  He allowed six hits. five runs, three earned.  He walked two and struck out five.  Ty Johnson threw an inning and walked two.

At Notre Dame, the Eagles scored first.

They plated two in the second.

Oran used a pair of leadoff walks.  Cole Priggel walked stole second and went to third on an errant pickoff attempt.  He came home on a passed ball.  Denver Elfrink also walked and scored on a Jacob Shoemaker squeeze bunt.

Notre Dame got one back in the bottom of the third on back to back one-out walks a single and a sacrifice fly.

That's the way it stayed until two out in the bottom of the sixth.

Notre Dame had an infield single, a triple and another infield single, to score two and take a 3-2 lead.

Oran had two base runners on with one out in the seventh but hit into a game-ending double play.

Layne Johnson (3-3) went the distance.  He gave up four hits, three runs, all earned.  He walked three and struck out seven.

The Eagles only managed three hits, all singles, one by Layne Johnson and two by Reischman.

Coach Joe Bickings said, "We had two tough opponents that are usually at the top of the SEMO Conference that we were able to compete with and had a chance to win both of them.  I thought our pitching was extremely good this weekend.  Both Todd & Layne threw well.  I felt like this was the best Todd has pitched this year and I hope he continues to improve.  He got a little tired late but that was the first time we’ve pushed him this year and he was able to compete.  Layne also did a really good job.  He had all three pitches working and was able to keep the hitters off balance.  He did have one inning where he lost focus a little and walked the 8 & 9 hitters but was able to limit the damage and hold them to only scoring one run. We had our opportunities to win or keep the game close but our defense let us down in a few spots and we didn’t capitalize on the getting runners in to score when we had the opportunity.  We can’t continue to strike out as much as we have been and expect to win close games.  I do feel like we looked a little better at the plate this weekend other than a few at bats but that’s baseball and sometimes you have to tip your cap to their pitcher and move on to the next at-bat.  The message after the game was to keep their heads up because both of the teams always are competing to win the SEMO Conference and they have more kids in one class than we have in our whole school.  Playing those two teams made us better no matter the outcome and we will learn from it and move on."    

Oran fell to 7-7 with the losses.

They are scheduled to host Leopold tomorrow at 4:30.