The Parry McCluer High School baseball team entered last week with a legitimate shot of getting one of the top seeds in the upcoming Pioneer District tournament. Now the Fighting Blues are going to need some help.
After a long week that saw the Blues navigate through four games, PM played only one last week, falling at Bath County last Tuesday, 2-1, and dropping to fifth place in the Pioneer District standings.
PM, which sports a 4-12 overall record now, 3-6 against league foes, has not been eliminated mathematically, but the Blues will need a few things to happen in order to get a home game in the first round of the district tournament.
The Blues will close out the regular season at home on Friday against winless Craig County. Eastern Montgomery, which currently stands 4-4 in league play, closes the season with two district games, against second-place Highland County and Narrows, which is undefeated against district foes. Should the Blues win, and the Mustangs drop both of their contests, PM will finish tied and earn a home game by virtue of numbers drawn at the beginning of the year.
The road to that home game is more difficult now after four Bath County pitchers struck out nine and held the Blues to just two hits last Tuesday in Hot Springs.
The Blues had their chances, though, but PM could not take advantage of five walks and three errors by Bath County (4-9 overall, 4-4 district), leaving eight runners on base in the game, including five in scoring position.
It was a closer game than the teams’ previous meeting on April 15 in Buena Vista, when the Chargers had beaten PM 19-12.
In the first inning of the rematch, PM’s Brayden Holdren walked and stole second, but he advanced no further. In the second, after Bath took a 1-0 lead, Peyton Ramsey reached on an error and moved to third on a passed ball with no outs; however, the next three PM batters struck out to end the inning.
The Chargers increased the lead to 2-0 with a single tally in the fourth before the Blues finally got on the scoreboard. Braedyn Houck singled with one out in that inning. Kyler Ramsey followed with a walk, and Holdren drove in the run with a double. That put runners on second and third with only one away, but a strikeout and a pop-up ended the threat.
Houck wound up the hard-luck loser on the mound, going six innings and striking out 13 BC batters while allowing five hits, one walk and two earned runs.
Before PM’s home game against Craig County on Friday, which is scheduled for 5 p.m., the Blues will honor their four seniors: Houck, Holdren, Peyton Ramsey and Brylen Wade.
