BAKER — A gutsy effort by the Baker School baseball team came up short against Paxton on Monday.
Trailing 6-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning the Gators rallied for four runs, but it wasn’t enough as the Bobcats held on for a 6-5 win.
“Paxton is a good team,” Baker Coach Adam Henry said. “They hit the ball well and they pitch well. We can build off this game.
“We were down 6-1 and we came back and got to within a run and had a man on third (that would have tied the game). You have to be proud of that.”
The Bobcats wasted little time in putting a run on the board.
Paxton’s Zach Varnum led off the game with single. He stole second base, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Grant Stewart.
Baker tied the game in the bottom of the second.
The Gators loaded the bases on a Dakota Blackburn single, a walk to Gabe Nelson and a base hit by Will Davis.
With Conner Bartlett at the plate and nobody out, Henry decided to try the squeeze play. Bartlett was unable to get the bunt down and Blackburn was out trying to score.
Nelson did score on the play when Bobcat catcher Caleb Newborn threw ball into left field in an attempt to throw Nelson out a third base.
The score didn’t remain tied for long as Paxton scored four times in the top of the third inning to seemingly take control of the game. The big hit of the inning was a triple by Zach Varnum that scored Connor Varnum.
The Bobcats scored their last run in the top of the fifth when Connor Varnum struck out, but reached first on a wild pitch. He later scored on a sacrifice fly by Stewart.
Baker chipped away at the lead with two runs in the bottom of the fifth and two runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Bartlett reached first on an error to lead off the fifth and scored as Dillon Nixon was safe on a fielder’s choice. Austin Davis scored the other Gator run in the fifth walking and coming in on a Bubba Ellis sacrifice fly.
Will Davis and Bartlett scored in the sixth inning on two-run single by Logan Rickmon. Unfortunately for the Gators they were unable to score the tying run from third base as the inning ended.
“We hit the ball a lot better than we have in the past,” Henry said. “If we had hit with runners in scoring position I think we would have come out on top in this game.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Baker come back falls short