Wildcats fall short to Tigers
El DORADO - Sometimes all it takes is one mistake to open the floodgates.
El Dorado found that out firsthand, as Plainfield North (Ill.) scored 10 runs after a critical twoout error in the fourth en route to a 10-0 win over the Wildcats on Monday.
“The floodgates opened and we just couldn’t stop the bleeding,” said El Dorado coach Sam Tyler. “Against as good a team as we’ve played, it’s going to be difficult to win, especially when we’re not putting the bat on the ball. Defensively, we’re going to have to improve, and I’m going to do everything that I personally can to figure out ways to get our guys better. I know our guys took this one hard, and hopefully we can learn from it. We’re still relatively young as a team, but that’s no excuse. We’ve got to play better.”
Through three innings, Daniel Johnson was able to pitch out of jams time and again.
In the first, Johnson was able to pitch around an error by picking off Conner Peplow at second base.
The Tigers had runners at first and second with one out in the second, but Johnson got Dylan Diorio to bounce into a force play before fanning Anthony Fumagalli to end the inning.
But Johnson was at his best in the third.
Plainfield North (4-0) had runners at first and third with one out, but Johnson retired cleanup hitter Brady Miller on a popup to shortstop and Sam Jones on a ground out to second.
However, that all changed in the fourth with the aforementioned two-out error giving the Tigers renewed life.
With a runner at first and two outs, Johnson got Fumagalli to hit a grounder to third that should’ve ended the inning, but a poor throw led to a twobase error, putting runners at second and third, and the Tigers made the
(4-8) pay dearly for the miscue, sending 11 batters to the plate before the inning finally came to an end.
Peplow opened the scoring by rifling a two-run double to right-center, and Dylan McCarthy reached on an infield single to put runners at the corners, bringing an end to Johnson’s day on the mound.
Connor Cates was summoned to try and halt the rally, but Alex Steinbach walked to load the bases, and Miller ripped a tworun double to left to push the lead to 4-0.
A walk to Jones reloaded the bases, but Cates got Gavin Doyle to hit a fly ball to right that should’ve again brought an end to the inning.
However, it was misplayed into a bases-clearing triple, giving the Tigers a 7-0 lead.
Greg Budig promptly followed with an RBI single, and Peplow later capped the scoring with an RBI single.
The beneficiary of the Tigers’ rally was Brady Corrigan, who fired a three-hit shutout.
An Arizona State recruit, Corrigan got a 4-6-3 double play turned behind him to get past a one-out walk to Brennan Smith in the first.
In the second, Derek Jobe led off with a double off the fence in right-center, missing a home run by a couple of feet.
Gage Otwell followed with a walk to put runners at first and second, but Corrigan slammed the door on the Wildcats by striking out the next three batters.
Corrigan yielded only two-out singles to Smith in the third and Leighton Turbeville in the fourth the rest of the way.
Corrigan walked two and struck out nine.
Peplow and Doyle each had two hits and three RBIs, while Budig added two hits of his own for the Tigers.
“I thought our kid pitched well as the game went along,” said Plainfield North coach John Darlington. “This is only our fourth game, so we haven’t seen a lot of changeups and curveballs yet. It was good to see us eventually get used to the different pitching. We put the ball in play a little bit, and they made a mistake that hurt them. We’re just happy to be here. It’s a great facility. We had beautiful weather and that’s something we’re not used to yet.”
Johnson took the loss after allowing four hits and four runs in 3 2/3 innings. He walked three, struck out one and Tyler was very pleased with his performance.
“I thought Daniel Johnson did a great job,” Tyler said. “He definitely deserved more than what he got. I think all of those (runs) were unearned.”
Monday marked El Dorado’s first contest since going 2-2 in the Central Arkansas Invitational over the weekend.
The Wildcats picked up wins over Sylvan Hills and Jacksonville while falling to Benton and Conway.
“The great thing about it is we played four games and scored 29 runs,” Tyler said. “It was exciting to see the guys start hitting the ball a little bit. We ran into the juggernaut Conway, and that was the only time we didn’t score runs. It was 12-10 versus Benton, and we made seven errors, so if we cut that in half, maybe we win the game. We played good enough to beat Jacksonville. I think our pitching has improved, we just have to make the plays behind them, because our pitching staff isn’t going to strike out 10 guys a game. They’re doing a good job of pitching to contact, we’ve just got to take advantage and make those plays.”