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Campbell Camels out-pitch Hornets to advance to C1D1 Tournament semifinal round
BERNIE, Mo. - In the second quarterfinal match of the MSHSAA Class 1 District 1 Tournament game played here Thursday, May 9, because of Wednesday's storms at Senath, the Campbell Camels out-pitched the Holcomb Hornets to advance to the semifinal round Friday, May 10th.
Bryce McNabb for Campbell and Tanner Smart for Holcomb, the starters for each respective squad, virtually matched pitch for pitch and inning for inning for the first half of the game, both mowing down hitters left and right.
Holcomb's McNabb, despite a mistake to Sam Bunting who took him deep to left in the first, retired eight of the first nine batters he faced.
McNabb struck out six, and at one point sent down seven in a row. After yielding a single to Carson Weidenbenner and a walk to Bunting, he retired the next six batters in a row before walking ninth-place hitter Logan Townsend and leadoff hitter Carson Weidenbenner.
Coach Paul Glass put a tremendous amount of trust in his righthander, when Bunting approached the plate.
With two runners on that had both walked, knowing that Sam had already taken him deep back in the first, McNabb tasted revenge by striking out Bunting to end both the scoring threat and the inning.
That was the end of McNabb's night, and his performance was outstanding.
McNabb went five strong innings, allowed only two runs on two hits, with four walks and 10 strikeouts. He faced 21 batters, threw 96 pitches with 50 strikes.
Holcomb baseball coach Jeremy Siebert said Smart was inserted into the rotation as the starter as the pros do - as a bullpen start - just to pitch three innings to help stabilize his rotation going forward.
Smart flirted with danger in the first and third innings, facing seven batters in the first and six in the third.
Smart walked leadoff hitter Keaton Cunningham who was subsequently forced out at second by the next hitter Noah Kenner. Kenner was then balked to second, stole third and scored on a passed ball, tying the game at one.
Despite that one run and a walk that followed, along with a single and a hit batsman, Smart struck out Blayden Joiner with the bases loaded to end the threat.
Smart got in trouble in the third inning basically the same way because of a double by McNabb, an error on his second baseman, Carson Belcher and after a walk to Sam Jacobs.
That was followed by a walk to Blayden Joiner.
But Smart coaxed Kaysyn Guijarro to pop out to Ben Rowland at first base with bases loaded, and Holcomb stranded seven runners in the first three innings.
Jackson Melvin relieved in the fourth inning for Campbell with the score tied at one and faced the minimum number of batters for the next four innings.
He struck out the side in the fourth, then came the fifth inning.
Melvin walked leadoff hitter Bryce McNabb, who reached second on an error by his first baseman, but who was gunned down at third on a throw by his catcher to his third baseman. Melvin struck out Christian Lewis to end the inning.
Melvin faced only three batters after Cunningham singled to center but was gunned down by Campbell's centerfielder Kenneth Siebert trying to stretch out a double.
Jackson was brilliant for four innings and allowed no runs on only three hits, one base on balls, and seven huge strikeouts.
Smart, McNabb and Melvin combined for 20 strikeouts.
The game was knotted at one apiece, when in the bottom of the sixth Campbell's Siebert, with two outs, singled past an athletic, diving-catch attempt by second baseman Christian Lewis. The ball rolled into center field and the hit drove in both Jared Jennings and Smart for the go-ahead and third-insurance run for the Camels.
Melvin was winning pitcher for Campbell.
Although Moody pitched one inning, when he entered the game, the go ahead and third runner that he inherited, were charged to Bryce McNabb, who took the hard-luck loss.
Campbell (12-8) faces No. 1 seed Portageville Bulldogs (26-7) in the first semifinal game at 11 a.m. Friday, May 10 at Senath.