Big fourth inning sends Hartville past Plato to district championship

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By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

The Hartville Eagles rode the strong arm of sophomore Caleb Moore to the Class 2 District 9 Championship title on Wednesday morning, defeating the Plato Eagles, 5-4. Moore would go the distance, allowing just two hits on the day.

“Caleb has been great, he’s 7-0 on the mound now this year, he’s our number one, no doubt,” said Hartville coach Clint Horn. “He just dominated; he had all three pitches going today, kept them off balance. All we ask him to do is throw strikes.”

“I was just trying to throw strikes, dominate, pound the zone, try to get people out,” said Moore. “I just didn’t let our one bad inning get to me, I didn’t think about it, just went right back at them. I knew my team could pick me up. Staying strong, keep throwing strikes.”

For the first three innings Moore faced the minimum Plato hitters as he retired nine in a row. Hartville threatened in the top of the first and second innings, putting two runners on but leaving them stranded. In the fourth inning, Hartville managed to string some hits together, along with a couple walks and an error, loading the bases with one out. Senior Matthew Marco, who bats ninth in the lineup, hit a key bases-clearing double to put his team up 5-0 over Plato.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME

“I was just trying to do the most I could for my team in the situation,” said Marco. ”He threw me a fastball and I was looking to jump on the first pitch I saw. Our bottom of the order this year has been absolutely phenomenal. They come up in big times, they did a couple of weeks ago at New Covenant. They produced and that’s what we need to get championships like this.”

A key statistic for the game was the bottom of the order for Hartville going 3-8 with three runs scored and two RBIs, while Plato’s bottom of the order was 0-9 with six strikeouts.

Plato scored a lone run in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly when junior Caeden Hathaway hit a fly ball to left field, scoring Jack Morrison. Hartville held their lead through six when they hit a two-out double by Holton Simmons. Simmons took third on a wild pitch, and the next hitter was Eli Cook who hit a line shot to shortstop. The shortstop froze Simmons between third and home, catching him in a rundown. Cook tried to reach third base while Simmons was in the rundown but got tagged out along with Simmons, giving Plato the unconventional double play. Plato then had the momentum.

In the bottom of the sixth with one out, Morrison reached base on an error and Hayden Smith reached on another error. Hathaway drove the ball over the right field fence giving him and his team hope as they now trailed 5-4. Andrew Hoover reached on the third error of the inning for Hartville. He stole second and was the game tying run at second. Plato had Moore on the ropes but the defensive lapse did not faze him. The next hitter for Plato lined out to shortstop to end the inning.

The seventh inning was uneventful for both sides as each team went three up, three down, giving Hartville the District Championship, 5-4.

“We were just a little bit too late,” said Plato coach Mark Vaughan. “We haven’t really hit well the last two weeks and today we got down and let them score all those runs in one inning. It’s kind of hard to come back that late in a game, we were trying to do all our scoring in three innings instead of spreading it out. It’s obviously not where we wanted to be but sports build character. I’m proud of the kids, they didn’t give up and that says a lot for their character. I just told them that one game shouldn’t take away from the season that we’ve had. We have had injuries throughout the fall and spring and we still won a lot of games because there is a ton of talent here. I’m really proud of the way we came back today.”

Horn was proud of the way his boys competed, winning their second consecutive District title.

“We knew it was going to be tough coming in here, Plato’s a great squad, well coached, with some great players over there,” said Horn. “We knew it was going to take everything we had and I feel like our guys left it all out there on the field, saw a little bit of everything, some ups and downs. We feel fortunate to get out of here with a win today. In the sixth inning we went out and tried to calm our guys down, let them refocus. Caleb was throwing strikes and doing his job and it was just ‘hey, who’s going to step up and make the play for us?’ Good thing about Hartville is, we’ve been in this situation before. Adversity, it’s going to happen, its playoff baseball; anything can happen and you’ve just got to find a way to get through it. I’m really proud of my guys.”

Hartville 5, Plato 4
Hartville 000 500 0 — 5
Plato 000 103 0 — 4

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