Marathon Men: WeBo gets split in two extra inning games
May 10—DOVER — The Western Boone and Frankfort baseball teams battled for 18 innings and for more than six hours on Thursday night during their Sagamore Conference double-header.
And after a heart-breaking 1-0, 10-inning loss in game one, the Stars bounced back with a 10-9, eight-inning win in game two to earn the split.
"It was a really long night," Western Boone head coach Michael Nance said. "In game one, Bryce Kopriva pitched a heck of a game for (8.2) innings and we just didn't do enough offensively to support him. Then we did just enough in game two."
In game one, it was a classic pitcher's duel between Kopriva and Oscar Lopez-Alanis.
Kopriva allowed no runs on seven hits in 8.2 innings, striking out five. Lopez allowed seven hits in 9.2 innings, striking out three.
WeBo had two base runners in three of the 10 innings, but couldn't get across the run they needed.
In the bottom of the 10th, a lead-off walk started the inning for Frankfort. After two outs with the runner on third, WeBo chose to intentionally walk the bases, and Frankfort won on a hit by pitch even though it appeared the ball went off the knob of the bat.
"We didn't have good approaches at the plate and were on our front foot the entire time," Nance said. "We got away from our right field approach. It was a little less velocity than we were expecting, and that's not a knock on their kid, he shut us down. We were just way on the front foot trying to pull everything."
In game two it appeared like WeBo was well on it's way to getting a win, jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning — getting a 2-run double from Carter Marcum, a 2-run single from Gavin Hawkins and RBI-singles from Cole Wiley and Marco Velazquez.
Frankfort scored twice in the top of the second, and after WeBo made it 7-2 in the bottom half of the inning, the Hot Dogs tied the game in the fourth with a 5-run inning.
WeBo retook the lead in the sixth on an error and a single from Quinn Westerfeld, but the Hot Dogs tied the game in the seventh.
In the bottom of the eighth, Jackson Grimes walked to lead off the inning and two batters later was on third with two outs.
Marcum then reached on an error, allowing the game-winning run to score.
"We did enough to get the W," Nance said. "Defensively I didn't think we were very focused, but they are high school kids and we played for six hours."
Hawkins was 4-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs in game two. Wiley and Westerfeld both had two hits.
Evan Kiplinger got the win, pitching the final 1.2 innings.
Western Boone is back in action Saturday against Clinton Central in a double header.
The Stars are scheduled to play Clinton Central in a double header. Then have five games in eight days to end the year.
"We are just trying to get better every single day so that we're ready for Lebanon in the opening game of the sectional," Nance said.
Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.
