Class 5A Crook County jumped to an early 8-0 lead and took advantage of errant pitching, fielding woes and stranded runners to defeat Taft 11-3 Friday in the Madras Spring Break Baseball Tournament.
“We had some positives, but they were outweighed by the negative,” Taft coach Matt Hilgers said. “We really struggled to throw strikes early on.”
The Class 3A Tigers walked or hit 13 batters, committed three errors and left 13 runners on base in falling to 3-4 this season.
“That makes it very hard to win a game when you allow another team that many free passes to first base,” Hilgers said. “We have to do a better job of throwing strikes and making solid contact with runners on base.”
Crook County of the Intermountain Conference, which defeated host Madras 11-1 on Thursday’s opening day of play, improved to 5-3 with its third straight win.
“We will continue to struggle and find ourselves on the losing end of the game if we cannot start making progress with these two aspects of the game,” Hilgers said.
Senior Cody Knott, who doubled twice, and cousins Tyee and Trenton Fisher had two hits each, while Trenton Fisher, Bleiz Kimbrough and Lucas Hindman drove home runs for the Tigers. Kaden Hindman, Tyee Fisher and Knott scored for Taft.
Taft returns to play at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Crook County 11, Taft 3 CROOK COUNTY AB R H BI TAFT AB R H BI Brody Connell 2 2 1 1 Trenton Fisher 5 0 2 1 Hunter Bishop 4 2 1 1 Eli DeMello 4 0 0 0 Kyle Knudtson 5 0 0 0 Cody Knott 4 1 2 0 Ethan Cossitt 3 3 1 0 Tyee Fisher 3 1 2 0 Garrett Bernard 3 2 1 1 Bleiz Kimbrough 4 0 1 1 Justin Smith 1 1 0 1 Kaden Hindman 3 1 1 1 Carson Smith 1 0 1 0 Lucas Hindman 3 0 1 0 Clayton Wilkins 3 1 3 4 Trenton Hall 4 0 0 0 Trentyn Maryanski 3 0 1 1 Graden Kehr 2 0 0 0 Louis Duran 4 0 2 2 FCO Ramos 1 0 0 0 TOTALS 29 11 11 11 TOTALS 33 3 9 3 CROOK COUNTY 350 100 2 -- 11 TAFT 012 000 0 -- 3 LOB--Crook County 13, Taft 13. E--Clayton Wilkins (3), Eli DeMello, Jordan Hall. 2B--Garrett Bernard, Hunter Bishop, Clayton Wilkins, Cody Knott (2). HBP--Garrett Bernard, Ethan Cossitt, Justin Smith. SACF--Garrett Bernard, Brody Connell, Clayton Wilkins. SB--Brody Connell (2), Cody Knott. CROOK COUNTY IP H R ER BB SO HR Justin Smith (W) 2.00 3 1 1 3 1 0 Carson Smith 5.00 6 2 1 1 4 0 TAFT Tyee Fisher (L) 0.67 0 3 3 5 1 0 Lucas Hindman 0.67 1 5 5 2 0 0 Trenton Fisher 5.67 10 3 3 3 3 0 WP--Trenton Fisher (2). SO--Ethan Cossitt, Kyle Knudtson, Hunter Bishop, Louis Duran, FCO Ramos, Graden Kehr (2), Trenton Hall (2). BB--Ethan Cossitt, Justin Smith, Brody Connell (2), Carson Smith, Hunter Bishop, Louis Duran, Trentyn Maryanski (2), Clayton Wilkins, Tyee Fisher, Lucas Hindman, Graden Kehr, Kaden Hindman.
