BOONE - The momentum from a great finish to the regular season didn't carry over into Class 3A district semifinal play for the Nevada baseball team Friday, as the Cubs struggled at the plate and in the field in a 6-0 loss to Ballard at Boone.
Nevada had upset a top-10 Perry team and Raccoon River Conference champion Carlisle at home in its final two games of the regular season leading up to Friday's district game. But they went cold at the plate, coming up with just two hits against former teammate Nate Andersen.
"I don't know if it was a mental thing, but we just didn't get it done," Nevada head coach Brad Cross said. "We uncharacteristically watched too many strike threes go by. We were also trying to lay off the high pitch, but we went after too many high pitches."
Nevada's only serious scoring threat against Andersen came right off the bat as they loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first inning. Matt Bosworth hit a leadoff single, Nick Sutton followed with a walk and Curtis Borts drew another free pass two batters later, but then Andersen forced Alex Cross to ground into a double play to keep the Cubs off the board.
In the top of the third, Cole Sheets and Bosworth both walked to start the inning, but then Andersen struck out the next two Nevada batters and Bosworth was caught stealing at third to end the inning. The Cubs only had three players reach base over the final four innings, and a pinch-hit single by Bryce Black with two outs in the seventh inning was the team's only hit after Bosworth's leadoff single.
Ross Van Allen was the losing pitcher for Nevada as he allowed four earned runs on five hits with four walks and three strikeouts in three innings. Sutton gave up two unearned runs on two hits with one strikeout and no walks.
The Cub pitchers both had to battle through some defensive mistakes as Nevada tallied four errors in the game.
Ballard put up two runs in the bottom of the third when Ryan Bridgewater singled and scored on a sacrifice fly from Garret Alt, and Mitchell Smith added an RBI single. The Bombers added three more runs in the fourth as Bridgewater singled in a run, Ross Larson had an RBI sacrifice fly and another run scored on a Cub error, while Bridgewater tripled and scored in the sixth inning for Ballard's final run.
Bridgewater ended up 3-for-3 with three runs as the top hitter for Ballard. Andersen finished with 10 strikeouts and five walks on the mound as he helped Ballard improve to 13-15 on the season.
Nevada finished the season with a 7-19 record. The loss may have ended the season for the Cubs, but Cross said it did nothing to diminish a strong close to the year by his squad since Nevada also had quality wins over Saydel and Carroll during the year.
"I don't believe in the Raccoon River Conference that we've ever beaten those four teams in the same year before," Cross said. "After the last few weeks and the run we've had, it was a heck of a season."
Ballard 6, Nevada 0
N 000 000 0 - 0 2 4
B 002 301 X - 6 7 0
N: Ross Van Allen, Nick Sutton (4) and Alex Cross
B: Nate Andersen and Josh Neville
WP: Andersen
LP: Van Allen
3B: B - Ryan Bridgewater
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