Pintos take fourth at Calvary Lutheran tournament

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Hours after falling to Vienna in the semifinal game of the New Bloomfield/Calvary Lutheran tournament, California suffered a similar fate against Belle in the third-place game Saturday.

In a back-and-forth tilt that went eight innings, the Pintos fell 7-6 to the Tigers despite carrying a one-run lead into the top of the seventh.

“Tough day, tough games, and I just didn’t think we brought the energy and the focus that it takes to win games against quality opponents,” California head coach Matt Moulder said. “We had ample opportunities, and we squandered opportunities and we gave extra chances to the other team.

“Baseball is a game where you have to make plays to win; but even more importantly, you have to not be giving the other guys free stuff.”

After Landon Mouse’s home run put California up 6-5 heading into the seventh, it looked as though California would escape with a hard-fought victory. However, three Belle hits off Pintos reliever Jacob Adams tied the score. With California unable to win it in the seventh, the Tigers kept the offense rolling with two more hits and a sacrifice bunt to scratch across what proved to be the winning run in the eighth.

“It’s been an up-and-down year for us, but we have a quality group of kids,” Belle head coach Devon Payne said. “I’m excited for them, excited for the team, and I thought we played pretty well through the tournament. Coming out of this tournament with two wins is nice.”

Neither team struggled for offense early on in this one as 15 total runners reached base safely in the first two innings alone. After allowing two Belle runs in the top of the second, California tacked up three in the bottom half on the strength of Jacob Wolken’s two-run single.

After Belle’s Jacob Abel crushed a homer to tie the score in the third, Wolken was again the man to answer for the Pintos with an RBI single. Though Belle took a brief lead in the fifth thanks to RBI singles from Abel and Zach Hill, California would yet again answer when Jon Pardoe came around to score after drawing a leadoff walk.

The game featured 21 hits in total, but when the critical pitches and defensive plays needed to be made, it was the Tigers (5-8) who answered the call. Starter Lane Sanders went the distance for Belle to pick up the win. He allowed 11 hits, but countered that with 10 strikeouts, many of which came with Pintos runners in scoring position.

“It’s nice to be able to make plays,” Payne said. “When you play a clean baseball game, you’re going to win a lot of them in high school. When you throw strikes, you don’t give up walks and don’t give up errors, success is going to find you more often than not.”

Though the Pintos got quality at-bats from Mouse and Wolken in the last half of the eighth, California (8-6) was unable to rally after it had spent much of the game answering Belle’s offense. Going forward, Moulder hopes his group will learn from the sting of losing two one-run games in the span of a single day.

“This (game) needs to hurt and it needs to eat at them a little bit,” California head coach Matt Moulder said. “We’ve got to do some soul-searching and we’ve got to make some changes. You can’t accept falling short or not giving a great effort or not being enthusiastic. …

“When you’re not in it and you’re not focused and you’re making mental mistakes, that’s not acceptable and we have to do better.”

First round recap: California 13, Tuscumbia 2

In Friday’s quarterfinal game of the Calvary Lutheran/New Bloomfield Tournament, California’s first four hitters kept trading places at second base. That’s what happens when you hit four consecutive doubles to open a game.

Five doubles in the first frame staked the Pintos to an early 5-0 lead, and it set the tone in California’s 13-2, run-rule-shortened victory against Tuscumbia at Calvary Lutheran.

“Everybody played well today,” Pintos second baseman Landon Mouse said. “The team came out ready to play. We were able to hit the ball and jump on them early.

“We just asked our pitchers to throw strikes and they did, and the defense made plays. It was kind of an all-around good effort.”

Mouse led the charge, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles. He and shortstop Kory Stephens started every big inning for the Pintos while also playing steady defense up the middle behind pitchers Isaac Wells and Cole Schlup.

“Kory and I are pretty good buds,” Mouse said. “We work hard, we like to push each other and we have a good bond together and it’s kind of paid off for us.”

After Wells had trouble finding the strike zone in the top of the second, the Lions were able to get two runs back to cut the deficit. But a two-run double from Jacob Wolken pushed the California lead back up to five in the bottom half.

Reliever and winning pitcher Cole Schlup did not allow Tuscumbia to score any more runs, as he went 3 2/3 scoreless innings with just one hit allowed.

The Pintos put the game to rest in the fourth when their offense produced an output similar to that of the first inning. California ran off six hits — three doubles — to tack on five more runs and earn the run-rule win.

“It’s certainly good to get right back on the horse after you have a disappointing loss and be able to come back and play the next day so that you don’t have to dwell on it too much,” Moulder said. “I know I was stewing a little bit last night after we were done, but it’s certainly great to get back out here and put in a solid performance to get a win and get us back on track.”