Mustangs' Season Ends With Loss

RICK PECK/SPECIAL TO MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS McDonald County catcher Joe Brown catches a foul pop-up during the Mustangs' 12-0 loss to Carthage in the Missouri Class 5 District 12 Baseball Tournament held May 12 in Carthage.
RICK PECK/SPECIAL TO MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS McDonald County catcher Joe Brown catches a foul pop-up during the Mustangs' 12-0 loss to Carthage in the Missouri Class 5 District 12 Baseball Tournament held May 12 in Carthage.

The rematch was all Carthage. A little over a month after losing to the McDonald County Mustangs, the Carthage Tigers made sure that wasn't going to happen again.

Travis Vogt pitched four perfect innings, striking out 10 of the 12 batters he faced, to lead the Tigers to a 12-0 five-inning win over McDonald County in the opening round of the Missouri Class 5 District 12 Baseball Tournament held May 12 in Carthage.

Carthage scored all the runs it needed in the first, scoring five runs on three hits, four errors, a walk and two passed balls. The Tigers added three runs in the second, one each in the third and fourth and two in the fifth.

Charlie Moore took the loss. Moore, who held Carthage to one run on one hit in the Mustangs' win earlier this season, allowed seven runs, two earned, on five hits in an inning and a third. Cade Smith worked the final three and two-thirds innings, allowing five runs, one earned, on six hits.

McDonald County committed eight errors in the five-inning game.

The Mustangs' first hit came in the bottom of the fifth after they were already trailing 12-0. Pinch-hitter Trey Black led with a single off of reliever Kaden Carter. With one out, Jorden Platter singled pinch-runner Caleb Curtis to second, but Carter got the next two batters on a strikeout and a groundout to preserve the shutout.

"Carthage has been playing pretty well lately and we haven't been," said coach Nick Martin. "It was a bad time to have to play them. Vogt is a good pitcher, so we knew it was going to be tough to score. When you give them five runs in the first inning, you have dug a hole that's going to be hard to get out of."

McDonald County ends the 2018 season with a 14-12 record, which included a four-game losing streak to end the season. Nine seniors played their final game for the Mustangs.

"I told the kids after the game we couldn't let one game reflect on the season we had," Martin said. "We finished kind of slow, but to remember that we won 14 games."

Playing their final game were Black, Curtis, Raygan Bradley, Grant Cooper, James King, David Roark, Jorge Ruiz, Ty Shaver and Tyler Stoutsensberger.

Sports on 05/17/2018