By MATT PIKE
The West Platte Blue Jays battled back and forth with the North Platte Panthers after a wild fifth inning, taking home an 11-7 win in eight innings to stay undefeated in conference play.
The Blue Jays held the lead through the first five and a half innings, but after the Panthers scored six runs in the bottom half of the fifth to take the lead, West Platte fought back for a one run lead in the top of the sixth, before North Platte scored again and both teams exited the inning tied. With no scores in the seventh, the game went to extra innings, where the Blue Jays put up four runs for the win.
Head coach Brian Faulkner says that was a game that could have gone either way.
"The ball was bouncing, I call this the dandelion game, the ball gets lost out there how often does that happen and the left fielder can't find it, so it rolled our way a couple of times, honestly we made a few to many errors, more than I'm comfortable with, but these kids keep grinding and we find a way to win," Faulkner tells reporters after the game. "We are rolling with high confidence right now and the team is just what we call a team and we're doing great things, so it's a game and these guys never gave up so I'm super proud of them."
The Blue Jays opened the scoring in the second inning as Jaxon Davis scored on a ground out by Carter Conrad. The score held at 1-0 until the fifth inning, as West Platte added three more runs, loading the bases after back-to-back walks and a single, and with one out two runs scored on a single by Blaze Masoner, scoring Jhett Chandler and Alex Allison. After advancing to second on the single, Cuin Vincent came home with two outs on an RBI single from Davis.
Trailing 4-0, the bats came to life in the bottom half of the fifth for North Platte, as the Panthers found gaps in the Blue Jays defense. With one out, Kaysen Iske singled, and moved all the way to third on two wild pitches from Matthew Cook. A single by Hunter Palmer scored Iske, and after Ben Horsley walked, Lane Richardson cut the West Platte lead to two runs with an RBI single driving in Palmer. Runners on the corners for Jace Iske ended up tying the game, a two RBI double scoring Richardson and Horsley to make it 4-4.
Still with just one out and the game now tied, Cook walked Tate Gill to put runners at first and second, and a single from Dylan Armstrong gave the Panthers their first lead of the game, driving in courtesy runner Carter Cunningham, moving Gill to third base. West Platte would finally get the second out of the inning on a ground out from Grady Coons, but Gill would come home to score, making it 6-4 at the end of five innings after Aspen Large lined out to end the inning, after also striking out to open the frame.
Masoner says the message in the Blue Jays dugout when the Panthers took that lead was just to stick true to who they were.
"We knew they were going to compete and they did, our coach just told us to stick true to who we are and fight, and from top to bottom we ended up hitting pretty well," Masoner says. "So, once we have our team comradery, we can't really slow down, so that was awesome for us."
West Platte took the lead back in the sixth inning with two outs. Conrad singled to open the inning and moved to second on a passed ball with two outs before Vincent walked. With the two runners on, Reed Elms hit a line drive to left field that was lost in the weeds, allowing Elms to clear the bases, and score himself for an inside the park home run, putting the Blue Jays up 7-6. In the bottom half of the inning though, after a triple by Horsley, North Platte tied the game on a double by Richardson.
Both teams went three up, three down in the seventh inning forcing an extra frame, and in the eighth West Platte took the lead again. Chandler was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and Vincent doubled, putting two runners in scoring position which Elms capitalized on, grounding out but scoring Chandler. A single from Masoner with one out drove in Vincent, then Masoner scored all the way from first on a single by Cook to push the lead to 10-7. After Davis popped out for the second out, Dalton Burns singled to move Cook to second, and another singe from Conrad drove Cook in for the final run.
In the bottom of the eighth, Kaysen Iske singled leading off the inning and Horsley walked with one out, but then Masoner on the mound now got the final two outs of the inning striking out Jace Iske to end the game. Elms earned the win on the mound pitching 2.1 innings giving up two hits and one run while walking one. Richardson took the loss, throwing 2.2 innings with six runs, four earned, on six hits with one strikeout and two walks.
At the plate for West Platte, Masoner was 3-for-5 with two RBI's. Vincent was 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored while Elms was 1-for-4 with the home run, a walk, and four RBIs. For North Platte, Richardson was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Horsley was 1-for-2 with a triple and three walks.
After both teams entered the game undefeated in conference play, Faulkner says the win is a big one for his Blue Jays.
"Our goal of course is to win every conference game possible, it's a very difficult conference, we know we have a very difficult district too," Faulkner says. "So, we still have Mid-Buchanan ahead of us, that's going to be a great game again, but this was a great challenge for us and they're a great ballclub, but we came out ahead and it worked well for us tonight."
Next, West Platte will be home to Bishop LeBlond on Monday in a stretch of three straight home games. North Platte will stay home as well to face University Academy Charter on Tuesday.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.