Cooter knocks off Bell City 3-2 in odd contest

Cooter High School junior pitcher Brayson Green throws against Bell City High School junior Landon Stewart on Wednesday at Cooter High School.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

COOTER – The Bell City High School baseball program is coming off its most successful spring since winning the third of three consecutive MSHSAA Class 1 state championships in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

The Cubs have a plethora of experienced starting pitching, and the eldest of those, senior right-hander Dawson Loomes threw against a Cooter team, which is coming off a struggling five-win spring, and currently has six freshmen on its 14-man roster.

So, when Loomes threw one-hit ball over six innings, struck out 12 Wildcats and only walked a couple on Wednesday, THAT wasn’t a surprise to anyone.

What was shocking was that the Cubs found a way to lose the game 3-2 or Cooter found a way to win it, whatever your perspective.

“That is just baseball,” veteran Bell City coach Justin Simpher said following the loss. “You can play really good and lose, and you can play really bad and win sometimes.”

In the case of the Cubs (2-1), they didn’t play well, which explains how they lost.

For starters, a pair of Wildcat arms, freshman Jackson Brooks and junior Brayson Green only allowed two hits while Bell City committed four errors, hit three Cooter batters, and had the bases loaded with one out in the sixth inning and didn’t get any of those three Cub runners home, and had runners at second and third bases in the fifth inning with just one out and didn’t score in the inning.

“Baseball doesn’t make sense sometimes,” Simpher said. “It was a close game late, and you have to execute and make plays.”

Cooter (2-1) got a run across in its first at-bat, as freshman Jaxon Mathis drew a one-out walk before scoring on an RBI single from senior Jackson Watkins.

The Cubs appeared to have done to Cooter in the sixth inning, what several teams did to the Wildcats this past spring, which is to rally for a one-run victory.

Bell City junior Kale Richardson connected for a leadoff double before advancing up a base on a Cooter miscue.

Bell City senior Baylor Eftink drew a walk off of Brooks, who was making his first varsity appearance, while Richardson scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at one.

“Jackson (Brooks) is going to be really good,” veteran Cooter coach David Mathis said. “Basically, (Brooks) was going to go and mix and match to 45 pitches. If we got into trouble, we were going to throw Green no more than 30 pitches.”

In the sixth, Brooks stayed in the game, despite Bell City beginning to heat up at the plate.

Cub junior Blaine Scheible drove in Eftink to give Bell City a 2-1 margin.

Last spring, Cooter lost 11 games, five of which were by one run, so this game seemed to just follow that trend. However, the young Wildcats showed some moxie.

Brooks opened the sixth inning by getting hit by Loomes and moved up a base when Cooter senior Lance Lucy reached on a Cub error.

A couple of Bell City errors on a single play allowed both Cooter runners to come home.

“I’ve been hard on these kids,” Mathis said. “I’ve been harder on them, and they have had more swings than any team we have had because they have won a lot at the lower levels.”

Mathis made three pitching changes between Brooks and Green, who closed the game by allowing just three Bell City hitters in the seventh inning.

Brooks threw four innings and allowed two earned runs and six walks while striking out three.

Green worked three innings and allowed no runs and just one walk while striking out six.

“Basically,” Mathis explained, “we just went in and out with them. But then, we got to the point where we had a chance to win, and we thought ‘We have to win today. Who cares about tomorrow?’”

Brooks finished with 82 pitches while Green threw 30 strikes in his 45 pitches.

Watkins had the lone Cooter hit and an RBI while Green (walk), Mathis (one run, one walk), Brooks (one run), and Lucy (one run) also contributed offensively.

Richardson had a hit in the loss, as well as a walk and a run scored while senior Austin Thompson (one walk), Eftink (one run, one walk), Scheible (one hit, one RBI, one walk), junior Jacob Asher (two walks), and junior Linc Scherer (one walk) were also productive.

Bell City will host Meadow Heights (1-1) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Cooter fell to Senath-Hornersville 14-5 on Thursday and will travel to Bernie (2-1) today at 4:30 p.m.