McClain loses heartbreaker to Jackson
McClain's Kaden Penwell had a single and double Monday night. (HCP Photos/Jim Jones)
The McClain varsity baseball team suffered a disappointing and hard-luck loss to Jackson, 2-1 Monday night on Tom Hixson Field in Greenfield.
It was a pitchers’ battle between McClain senior hurler Haydon Hice and Jackson’s Tucker Williams over the first five innings.
McClain led 1-0 early after scoring a run on two hits in the bottom of the second inning. Kaden Penwell, who had two hits on the night, doubled and came around to score on a single by Jayden Allison, who also collected two hits in the contest.
The score remained 1-0 Tigers over the next couple of innings until the Ironmen got a solo home run down the left-field line in the top of the fourth inning to tie the score. That would be the only mistake pitch Hice threw the entire game, and he gave up just three singles over the final three innings.
Jackson got a lead-off single in the top of the seventh and scored the winning run on a fielding error by McClain after two Ironmen had been retired.
The Tigers had their chances late in the game when they left the bases loaded in the sixth and stranded two base-runners in the seventh inning. The big factor in the loss for McClain was the fact that they left 13 runners on base in the contest while scoring just the single run in the first inning.
“We’ve played a lot of baseball already, and this is a special group of guys,” McClain head coach Kenny Branscom said after the game. “Haydon Hice pitched a great game tonight and is doing wonders for us on the mound, and his bat has really come alive.
“Kaden Penwell, our starting shortstop, is irreplaceable and he’s a kid that just goes out night after night and gets it done. He’s batting over .500 right now, and it’s incredible to watch him play the game. Andrew Potts hit his first home run Saturday, and Seth Weller, who was struggling batting at the top of our lineup, got moved down and now his batting average is going up.
“Overall, we’re playing good solid baseball against some really good teams, and we’re competing well just like you saw tonight,” Branscom continued. “Tonight, we dropped a tough fly ball that ended up costing the game, but we also left 13 guys on base, and if one ball bounces in our favor tonight, it’s a totally different ballgame. But tonight, the ball just didn’t bounce our way. I guess that’s why they call it baseball.”
The Tigers, now 5-3-1, on the season travel to Washington Wednesday before returning home Thursday to play Miami Trace in a makeup game, then entertain Chillicothe on Friday.
