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Gideon beat Clarkton 7-1 in Tri-County Fall Baseball Tournament Opener
GIDEON, Mo. - The Tri-County Fall Baseball Tournament began play on Monday, Sep. 30 with the number four seeded Gideon facing off against the number five seeded Clarkton.
The Bulldogs walked away with a 7-1 victory over Clarkton to advance to the next round of play.
Clarkton came out strong in the first inning behind the bat of junior Eli Pavy. After making a trip around the bases, he was finally batted in by his freshman teammate Caleb Redden.
This was the first run of the game giving the Reindeer a 1-0 lead over Gideon to conclude the first inning.
Redden also had three strikeouts as he led his team from the mound.
In the third of seven innings, Gideon’s Pacey Lowry steps up to pitch for the Bulldogs. En route to their victory, Lowry threw seven strikeouts leaving the Reindeer to only one scored run.
While Gideon stepped up defensively, they also found a rhythm on offense. They were led by junior Brayden Knapp who ended with three hits, three runs and an RBI. Along with his batting efforts, Knapp had four strikeouts against Clarkton in just two innings.
According to Knapp, they were happy to make it past Clarkton in the first round.
“It was a pretty good game for us,” Knapp said. “We started off slow but we pulled it out at the end and that’s all that matters.”
He helped bat in the first run for the Bulldogs which was scored by Gideon junior Landon Weaver. Weaver also had two hits in the game.
With the bases loaded, Carson Grissom batted in two more runners giving the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead.
Gideon went on to score four more runs in the fourth and fifth innings while holding Clarkton steady defensively.
Along with Knapp, Senior Drake Montgomery had two hits, two runs and an RBI. Hayden Lacewell also had an RBI and Lowry added a run to Gideon’s point total.
Knapp said this win came as a team effort, especially starting off scoreless through three innings.
“You just have to pick up your teammates who are down and show leadership throughout the whole game,” Knapp said. “Let them know they can do it, then help them through it. We didn’t have smart plays at first but we are a momentum based team and that helped us a lot. Seeing a hit a couple times helps.”
Next, Gideon will face off against the number one seeded Holcomb on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 2:30 p.m.
Knapp hopes the momentum from this win can carry over against their top seeded opponent.
“Now that our team has gotten better in the past few years, we really want to win this tournament,” Knapp said. “We hope to go in tomorrow the same way we did today, strong mentally, and play our game.”
Also on Tuesday, number two seeded Risco with play number three seeded Cooter at 4 p.m.
The winners of these two matchups will face each other in the championship game on Wednesday , Oct. 2 at 4 p.m.
All games for the Tri-County tournament are played at Gideon’s baseball field.