Blues’ Baseball Rally Falls Short
A furious comeback fell short, and the Parry Mc-Cluer High School baseball team dropped another Pioneer District game, falling 9-6 on Tuesday of last week at Eastern Montgomery.
The PM offense, which has struggled for most of the season, showed signs of life, as the Fighting Blues (1-6 overall, 1-2 district) pounded out 10 hits and scored more than once for just the second time this season. But the outburst wasn’t enough to overcome a 5-0 deficit to start the game and three errors that led to four unearned runs in the contest.
The Blues spotted the homestanding Mustangs (6-1-1, 2-1) a 5-0 lead. EM scored two of its runs on passed balls and plated two more after a two-out error in the bottom of the second inning.
PM answered with three runs of its own in the third. Michael Fleming, who had walked, scored on a Colby Camden groundout, and Brayden Holdren followed with a single to plate Braedyn Houck. Holdren then scored on an EM error to trim the PM deficit to 5-3.
But each time the Blues would get close, EM would answer. The Mustangs added single tallies in both the third and fourth innings, and after PM scored in the fifth, with Peyton Ramsey belting a single to drive home Holdren, EM tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead to 9-4.
The Blues had one more rally in them, however. In the top of the seventh, Camden led off with a single and moved all the way to third on a balk and a passed ball.
Lane Luckton’s single to left field drove Camden to the plate. Luckton later scored on a Kyler Ramsey base hit, but that’s where the PM comeback attempt ended, as EM’s Caleb Jones came to the mound and struck out the only batter he faced.
Marshall Tate picked up the win on the mound for the Mustangs, going 6.2 innings, allowing nine hits and six runs, only two of them earned, while striking out six. Houck took the loss for the Blues, as he gave up six runs, two earned, and seven hits while striking out three in his three innings of work. Peyton Ramsey pitched for the final three innings for PM, striking out five while allowing four hits, two walks and three earned runs.
Offensively, the Blues were led by Holdren, who went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Kyler Ramsey had two hits with an RBI, while Peyton Ramsey was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
PM committed three errors, while EM had two.
The Blues were scheduled to play host to Craig County last Thursday, but that game was postponed due to rain and rescheduled for Friday, May 16. PM was slated to play host to Bath County yesterday and will have a nondistrict contest at Grace Christian School on Thursday before returning to district action at home against Highland County on Tuesday, with both games starting at 5 p.m.
