The Wright City Wildcats mounted a seventh inning rally but fell to conference foe Bowling Green Tuesday.
The Wildcats (10-9) dropped the game to Bowling Green 9-6. Bowling Green is a conference opponent and is also in the same district as Wright City.
Despite trailing by five runs headed into the bottom of the seventh inning, Wright City brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the inning. Bryce Williams grounded out sharply to third base to end the threat.
“Tying run came to the plate. And he barreled it,” Wright City coach Ryan Raterman said. “And the third baseman made a great play. That’s just what we do. I like to think that our boys know we’re not out of a fight. And that’s kudos to them of not giving up but we can’t beat ourselves.”
Wright City trailed 1-0 going to the bottom of the first inning. They were able to escape further damage. With the bases loaded, pitcher Kyle Johnson induced an inning-ending double play.
Wright City answered with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. With one out, Logan McCartney and Ian Wolff both singled to put two runners on base. Hayden Waters hit a single to score McCartney to score Wright City’s first run of the game. The Wildcats scored two additional runs with two outs in the inning.
“They laid a jab and we came back with a haymaker,” Raterman said. “And we put up a crooked number. And thought it was just going to be a good game all the way throughout.”
After neither team scored in the second inning, Wright City surrendered five runs in the top of the third inning. The Wildcats responded with one run in the bottom of the third inning. McCartney stole home with two outs in the inning. With runners on second and third base, Jake Mitts hit a sharp ground ball on the right side of the infield. The Bowling Green infielder made a diving stop to take a hit away from Mitts.
Bowling Green added three runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 9-4 lead.
Raterman cited free bases as a major reason for the struggles in the middle innings.
“We gave up 15 free bases today,” Raterman said. “So we had six errors, eight walks and a hit-by-pitch. And that lost us the ballgame.”
There was no more scoring until the bottom of the seventh inning.
With Wright City down to their final three outs, the Wildcats mounted a comeback. Wolff doubled to lead off the inning and scored with one out in the inning. Johnson and Nick Moore were both hit by pitches to put two runners on base with one out and the score 9-5. Mitts hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Johnson to trim the lead to three. Freshman Micah Boeckman was hit by a pitch to bring the tying run to the plate. Williams grounded out to third base to end the rally.
Raterman believes the Wildcats needed a game like Tuesday’s clash with Bowling Green. He hopes Wright City faces them again in the district tournament, he said.
“I hope we see them in districts when it matters,” Raterman said. “We kind of needed a game like that. We kind of gave it to Hallsville a little bit and then we needed a challenging district type of baseball game. And that’s going to leave a bad taste in our mouth come district time. And I hope that we see them at districts.”
Wright City is scheduled to host Clopton today. First pitch is slated for 4:30 p.m. They are scheduled to square off against Montgomery County and St. Charles Saturday.