Published: May 06, 2008 11:44 pm         

Patriots in driver’s seat

This time, Independence is in the driver’s seat.

Behind the pitching of Douglas Poe and Mark Ward — and a little help from Oak Hill — the Patriots beat the Red Devils 4-2 Tuesday in the Class AA Region 3, Section 3 tournament at Shady Spring.

The win allows Independence (17-8) a day of rest today. Oak Hill, which lost for just the third time this season, meets Shady in an elimination game at 6 p.m.

The situation was reversed last year, when Independence lost the first game of the tournament but didn’t lose again until falling to Herbert Hoover in the state tournament. The Patriots defeated Oak Hill twice to win the section title.

“We just get a day’s rest for our pitching,” Independence coach Joe Goddard said, downplaying the significance of the situation. “We’ve won two games and we need to win three games. We’ve come out of the loser’s bracket two different times.”

Oak Hill (27-3) will have to follow that blueprint to live past the week.

“Independence came tournament-ready and we came just ready to play baseball,” Oak Hill coach Chris Walls said. “There’s a difference.”

Walls lamented several things, including:

The unlikely lack of offensive pop. The Nos. 4-7 hitters were a combined 1-for-12 on the night, and Oak Hill scored its fewest number of runs of the season.

Two key baserunning mistakes that cost Oak Hill potentially two runs. Freshman DeAndre Leonard was tagged out at third when he ran past the bag after the Devils had scored two runs on an error.

An inning later, Marcellas McFarland was gunned down at home trying to score on a throwing error by Poe.

The worst, Walls said, was a lack of motivation.

“The attitudes and the slumping of the shoulders is what I’m disappointed with,” he said. “Nobody in this dugout wanted to lose. We got beat, we played a good ballgame and we know what cost us. You just have to fix it.

“It’s nothing we can’t go out and fix, and we’re out here slumping our shoulders and hanging our heads and wanting to argue with each other. That’s bullcrap. We don’t act like that, I don’t coach like that. Something’s got to change.”

Of course, the Independence pitching had something to do with it.

Poe started and went 4 1/3 innings, pitching out of jams along the way. He gave up a leadoff single to Rob Stephens in the first but got Tyler Zimm to hit into a double play.

Junior Mark Ward took over with one out and a runner on first in the fifth. He wound up retiring the first seven batters he faced. He faced a bit of trouble with two out in the seventh when Dustin Nuckels reached on an infield hit and Stephens singled to left. But Zimm grounded to second and Stephens was forced for the final out.

Poe got the win after striking out three and walking two and not allowing an unearned run. Ward struck out three and didn’t walk a batter to earn the save.

“I was a little bit nervous right at the beginning,” Ward said. “I was worried about giving up a run and making it close. But going into the next inning I felt real good.”

Zimm (8-1) pitched well but was tagged with the loss. The junior left-hander struck out seven and walked two in the complete game.

A two-run single by Jeremy Buchanan gave Independence a 2-0 lead in the first. In the third, Justin Chandler was picked off at first, but Jake Justice ran home on the play to make it 3-0.

After Garrett Thompson and Stephens scored on an error in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-2, the Patriots got a big insurance run in the sixth when, with two outs, Trevor Gray scored on Richard Hampton’s single to center field.

Shady Spring eliminated Webster County 14-5 to set up today’s game. Justin McGraw had seven strikeouts and one walk in the complete-game win. He also drove in three runs, while Nick Basham was 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.



Independence 4, Oak Hill 2

I: 201 001 0 — 4 9 2

OH: 002 000 0 — 2 7 4

I: Douglas Poe, Mark Ward (5) and Jeremy Buchanan, OH: Tyler Zimm and Aaron McComas. WP — Poe. LP — Zimm. Hitting — I: Richard Hampton (rbi), Justin Chandler 2-3, Buchanan 2-3 (2 rbi), OH: Rob Stephens 2-2, Frankie McGraw (2b), Garrett Thompson (2b).

Records: I: 17-8; OH: 27-3.



Shady Spring 14, Webster County 5

WC: 100 004 0 — 5 6 6

SS: 110 156 x — 14 13 5

WC: Travis Williams, Grant Perrine (5), Craig Wright (6) and Perrine, Wright (5), Perrine (6), SS: Justin McGraw and Corey Cruise. WP — McGraw. LP — Williams. Hitting — WC: Perrine 2-4, Nicholas Chipps (2b, rbi), Adam Green 2-3 (2b), SS: Nick Basham 4-5 (2b, 2 rbi), McGraw 3-4 (3 rbi), Corey Wills (2b), Cruise 2-4 (2 2b, 2 rbi), Josh Groft (2b, rbi), Jacob Mills 2-2 (rbi).