Despite a big day at the plate from Landon Figg, the North Central Missouri College blew an early 2-0 lead, and lost Game 1 of a best-of-three sub-region series at Crowder College, 11-4 on Friday afternoon in Neosho.
Andrew Krause pitched effectively for the Pirates, twirling five innings of three hit baseball, giving up two earned runs and striking out two. For the ‘Riders, Kyle Blackwell, Troy Cahill, and Trey Turner combined for six hits and five RBI’s. Anferney Hoeve took the loss for North Central, allowing seven runs over three innings of work, hurt by issuing seven base on balls.
The Pirates, in the third inning, got an RBI double by Figg and sacrifice fly by Smith Kemper for a 2-0 lead, but hopes of a road upset were doused in the Crowder fourth, as the home team plated six runs on a two-run error, a pair of singles, and an RBI triple off Trey Turner’s bat.
North Central scraped to within 9-4 in the 7th inning by scoring twice, but never got closer.
Game #2 of the series will be this (Saturday) afternoon at 12 noon. If necessary, a winner-take-all third game would be played 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game #2.
