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Indians deal 7-1 baseball loss to Warriors

BANCROFT — Sometimes a complete-game performance from your starting pitcher isn’t enough.

The Pocahontas Area Indians defeated the North Union Warriors, 7-1, Monday on senior night at Bancroft Memorial Park.

Warriors’ starting pitcher Noah Morphew threw a complete game, giving up seven runs on 10 hits and three walks, while striking out three.

Indians starter Jace Davidson also threw a complete game. Davidson gave up one run on three hits and two walks, while striking out 15.

Warriors head coach Royce Byrnes said while he isn’t happy with the results, he is happy with how the team has played recently.

“We played a pretty decent team,” Byrnes said. “The guy they threw on the mound was probably one of the top two or three guys we’ve seen all year. He did a good job keeping our guys off-balance. I kept telling our guys we’ve been playing good teams while we play good baseball.

“We’ve been losing two- or three-run games and we’re doing a lot of good things in them. You just got to be persistent.”

The Indians took a lead in the first inning they wouldn’t give up.

Shea Ruffridge, the game’s leadoff batter, hit a single that bounced off Morphew’s glove and died behind him in the infield. After a passed ball put Ruffridge on second, Christian Davidson followed with a line-drive single behind Morphew’s back to put runners on the corners. Ruffridge would have scored, but he slipped rounding third and needed to retreat.

After Davidson stole second, Morphew got the next batter to ground out, which allowed Ruffridge to score from third and moved Davidson to third in his place.

Morphew got a pop-up to second baseman Braden Pierce. Pierce nearly lost the ball in the sun, but was able to drop to his knees and complete the catch.

With two outs, a line drive into left brought home the runner from third to put Pocahontas Area up 2-0.

The Warriors’ lone run came in the third inning. Elliott Hagebock led off the inning by fighting to a full count and taking a walk. A pickoff attempt gone awry allowed Hagebock to get to second, and a passed ball gave him third.

With two outs, Morphew helped his own cause by blooping a single over the Indian’s shortstop to bring Hagebock home. But the threat ended when Morphew was picked off in a rundown between first and second.

Robert Ortman and Brendan Anderson collected the other North Union hits and Avery Krantz took a walk in the fifth inning.

Byrnes said he thought Morphew was outstanding.

“Noah (Morphew) did an outstanding job, he’s been pretty consistent for us all year,” Byrnes said. “He’s only a sophomore, so this is a big important year for him to get that experience and hopefully become a dominant ace as a junior and senior, which I think he has the potential to do.”

The Indians put up three runs in the fifth on a triple that rolled to the right-field wall, a couple of bunt singles, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly.

Pocahontas Area scored again in the sixth after a walk, wild pitch, passed ball and groundout, and the final run of the game came in the top of the seventh after Morphew hit a batter who was able to come around on an error.

Byrnes said after the game, he told his players to focus on what is still to come.

“I told those guys it probably hasn’t been the year they wanted, wins-wise,” Byrnes said. “But you just got to control what you can control. I’d love to win every ballgame we can, but you’be got to find positives in the games you lose. We pitched well, we made a lot of great defensive plays. You’ve got to focus on those things. You can think about what happened tonight but after tonight, it’s done.

“We’ve got two regular-season games and a district game left to worry about, so now that’s what we focus on.”

PA 200 031 1 — 7 10 1

NU 001 000 0 — 1 3 1

Jace Davidson (WP) and Cage Arends. Noah Morphew (LP) and Robert Ortman.

LOB–Pocahontas Area 8, North Union 3. 2B–Matt Hoffmeyer (PA), Jave Davidson (PA). 3B–Jave Davidson. SAC–Cage Arends (PA). SF–Cage Arends (PA).

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