By Jason Peake
Garry Highfill remained positive after his Webb City Cardinals dropped a pair of nonconference prep baseball games on Saturday at Joe Becker Stadium.
Columbia Rock Bridge defeated Webb City 8-0 in the nightcap after Francis Howell topped the Cardinals 11-8 in 11 innings earlier in the day.
Despite the setbacks, Highfill noted playing solid competition will only help his Cardinals as they enter the final stretch of the regular season.
"I scheduled these two teams because I knew year-in and year-out they're going to be pretty good," Highfill said. "Rock Bridge started the year ranked fifth in the state and Francis Howell is also a good program. We beat both of them last year and they flipped it on us this year. But our end goal is to win a district championship. We're hoping we can get it rolling these next couple of weeks. We're looking forward to that." Ranked ninth in Class 5 the Missouri Baseball Coaches Association, Rock Bridge hiked its record 18-5. The Bruins, who have won 12 of their last 13 games, compiled their eight runs on 13 hits.
At the same time, the Cardinals couldn't generate much offense against Rock Bridge starting pitcher Parker Wright. The 6-foot-3 Wright limited the Cardinals to just two hits in six innings while striking out six.
"The guy they rolled out there made it a tough day for us," Highfill said. "He was pretty good. Everything he threw was running away from our hitters. He did a good job of staying in the zone. We just didn't hit it well."
Webb City's Draydon Emery was charged with the loss after surrendering seven earned runs in 3 2/3 innings. Wyatt Hodson gave up one run in three innings in relief.
Helping his own cause, Wright smacked a two-run home run to left in the first inning.
The Bruins added two runs in the second and a single tally in the third before Spencer Miles delivered a two-run double in the fourth to give the visitors a seven-run advantage. Rock Bridge added an insurance run in the seventh.
Devrin Weathers, Treghan Parker and Kade Hicks had one hit apiece for the Cardinals, while Zack Hay went 3-for-3 for the Bruins.
The opener was a tough one to take for the Cardinals as they could not hold on to a five-run lead.
After forcing extra innings with a single tally in the top of the seventh, Francis Howell plated three runs in the 11th to earn a comefrom- behind win.
"That was a real tough one," Highfill said. "We capitalized on our opportunities for the most part. There were some things we could have done better late in the game. We have to do a better job of being in attack mode at the plate. I think sometimes we're looking at too many pitches."
Bryson Matthews, Cade Beason and Cole Gayman recorded three hits apiece for the Cardinals, while Hicks and Cale McCallister both had two hits.
McCallister started on the mound and went 5 1/3 innings. Noah Mitchell and Alex Bass pitched in relief, with Bass going the final five innings and taking the loss.
Francis Howell's Dalton Grantham and Matt James had four hits apiece, while Matt Schark and Will Doherty contributed three hits apiece.
Hicks hit a three-run triple to highlight a five-run first inning. Webb City led 8-4 after five innings, but the Vikings (11-11) scored three runs in the sixth and another in the seventh.
In the second game of the day, Rock Bridge knocked off Francis Howell 6-4.
Webb City (10-9) is at Carl Junction (5-10) at 4:30 on Tuesday.
Joplin Globe 04/21/2019 (Used by permission)