Mound wildness costs J’ville at Malvern
MALVERN — Thanks to a patient approach at the plate and Jessieville’s inability to find the strike zone, Malvern needed only four hits to top the visiting Lions Tuesday night.
The Leopards drew 16 free passes via walk or hit batsman in an 8-3 win at Morrison Park.
“Whenever you’re up there on the mound, you have to find a feel for the zone and we never could lock in,” Jessieville coach Jamie Saveall said. “We never could figure out where he wanted it. We’d throw one spot and get a call, and throw it again and we wouldn’t. It was just real inconsistent and it made us be inconsistent on the mound.”
The top of the lineup did its job giving Jessieville an early lead in the first inning. Kaleb Moody led off with a double and stole home after a single by Dylan Anderson.
Moody finished with two doubles in four at-bats, stealing two bases and scoring two runs.
“He sees a lot of pitches and always gets a great look at the pitcher,” said Saveall. “He has great bat control, he’s able to put the ball where it’s pitched and anytime you can do that, you’re going to have a high batting average. The good thing today is he pulled the ball in the gap. We haven’t seen that much from him, so that was a promising deal.”
Jessieville’s lead was short lived, Malvern plating four runs in the bottom of the first despite not recording a base hit. Dalton Bray had an RBI walk and scored on a wild pitch while Garrett Mayhan and Parker Freer each was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
The Leopards added an insurance run in the third, Mayhan scoring on a wild pitch to stretch the lead to 5-1. The Lions made a modest comeback with one run in the fourth and fifth innings but stranded eight runners.
“The opportunities were there for us; we had the guys at the plate that we wanted at the plate, but we just didn’t come up with a big hit,” Saveall said. “As a hitter, you have to know the zone as well and whenever it’s inconsistent, it’s hard to gauge and hard to judge. We were swinging at some bad pitches and looking at pitches that they were calling strikes.”
Bryce Freer doubled home two runs in the Malvern sixth, and Demias Jimerson, starting quarterback for the Leopards’ football team, retired four of the five batters he faced to close the game.
Bray picked up the win, scattering three runs on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts in five innings. Jessieville’s Logan Perkins, Dalton McClard, Adam Saveall and Moody combined to allow eight runs on four hits with 13 walks and five strikeouts in six innings.
Dakota Fortenberry singled and reached on an error in four plate appearances for the Lions while Chase Pederson scored in the fourth when a teammate was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Jordan Hart reached base in each of his four plate appearances for the Leopards, three walks included.
Both teams play on the road today, Malvern (12-9-1) at Haskell Harmony Grove and Jessieville (11-6) at Danville.
“The good thing about this group is they haven’t really hit a streak yet,” Saveall said. “We always strive to peak at the end, and with as late a start as we get with a lot of our guys being in basketball, that normally hits right when we go to tournament time. If we can play well Thursday at Danville and keep that rolling, I think we’ll be in good shape going into the district tournament.”
Jessieville;100 110 0 — 3 4 1
Malvern;401 102 — 8 4 2 Bray, Turner (6), Jimerson
(6) and Scott. Perkins, McClard
(1), Moody (4), Saveall (6) and Saveall, Fortenverry (6). W-Bray. L-Perkins. 2B-Malvern, Freer. Jessieville, Moody (2). SB-Malvern, Freer, Jimerson. Jessieville, Moody.