Wins over East Newton and Cassville last week gave the McDonald County High School baseball team its second four-game winning streak of the season, and a current streak of eight out of nine, including the opening Big 8 Conference play with two wins.
Against Cassville on April 12 at MCHS, Charlie Moore held the Wildcats to one unearned run through five innings to lead McDonald County to an 8-3 win.
Moore allowed just two hits, while striking out 11 and walking three. Cade Smith worked a scoreless sixth before Raygan Bradley allowed two unearned runs on one hit and a walk in the seventh.
Cassville took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on a walk and two errors.
McDonald County took a 2-1 lead in the third. Micah Burkholder doubled with one out before Omar Manuel walked and Ty Shaver was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Boston Dowd then hit a ground ball to shortstop to drive in the first run, with the second scoring on a bad throw.
The Mustangs pulled away with six runs in the fourth. Moore led off with a walk and scored on a triple by Jorden Platter. Izak Johnson walked before Burkholder singled in a run with his second hit of the game. Shaver singled in a run, Dowd walked and Joe Brown singled in two more runs to give the Mustangs an 8-1 lead.
Cassville scored its final two runs on an error, a walk and a double in the seventh.
Burkholder and Shaver led McDonald County with two hits each, while Brown and Platter had one.
East Newton
The Patriots touched up Grant Cooper for six runs in three innings, but stellar relief pitching by Cade Smith, Jorge Ruiz and Bradley held East Newton to one run on two hits over the final four innings to lead McDonald County to a 16-7 win on April 10 at East Newton High School.
East Newton scored two runs in the first, three in the second and one in the third to take a 6-5 lead. But McDonald County scored in every inning, including five in the fifth and three more in the sixth, to record its highest run total of the season.
Moore doubled to start the fifth-inning rally. Platter singled him home with one out before scoring on a single by Johnson. With two out, Oakely Roessler doubled, setting up RBI singles by Shaver and Dowd.
Roessler, Dowd and Platter all finished with two hits and three RBIs, while Johnson had two hits and two drove in two. Brown and Moore added two hits each and Shaver had a hit, stole four bases and scored three runs.
Smith got the win, allowing one run on two hits in two and two-thirds innings. Ruiz got the only man he faced before Bradley worked a scoreless seventh.
The Mustangs' game against Bentonville West scheduled for April 13 was postponed to May 4 due to inclement weather. McDonald County, 10-4 overall, hosted Lamar on April 17 before the Mustangs entertain Aurora, the state's top-ranked Class 3 team, on April 19 at 5 p.m. at MCHS.
Sports on 04/19/2018