Twin Rivers run-rules Malden in Class 2 district baseball championship

Staff Photo by Dustin Ward
Malden's Mitch Coleman turns a double play as Twin Rivers' Kaleb Doyle slides into second base in the first inning.

MALDEN, Mo. -- The Malden Green Wave fell one win shy of its second straight district baseball championship Tuesday afternoon.

The top-seeded Twin Rivers Royals pounded out 13 runs on 13 hits on its way to a 13-3 six-inning run-rule win against Malden in the Class 2, District 1, title game.

"If you would have told me a month or two ago we would be in the district championship game I would have had my doubts," Malden coach Tim Harmon said. "We got off to a real bad start and had several unforeseen circumstances with injured and suspended players. The first week of the season these guys beat us and put us in a bad spot for the district seedings. It is so important in the district to get the No. 1 seed and save your pitching for the later rounds of the district. We got the No. 2 seed so we had to throw our best pitchers in the early rounds. We had to use Murphy in the semifinals for 10 innings and just didn't really have anything left today to be honest. We threw everybody we had and every pitcher gutted it up."

Malden was forced to bring starting pitcher Darren Green back on two days rest for Tuesday's championship because Green Wave ace Tanner Murphy was unavailable after pitching 10 innings in Malden's 5-4 11-inning district semifinal win against South Pemiscot Monday.

Green pitched a complete-game shutout Saturday in Malden's 6-0 win against Caruthersville in the first round of the district tournament.

"I'm not going to lie," Twin Rivers coach Nathan Walk said. "I was happy Murphy didn't get to throw. You want to win, but you hate to kick someone when they are down like that. But at the same time that's just baseball. Given the circumstances I thought Malden did all they could and never gave up. They had guys on throughout the game and were trying to do things. They played the game the right way."

Green allowed Twin Rivers' first two hitters to reach base in the bottom of the first inning, but escaped the first inning without allowing a run when the Royals' No. 3 hitter Kaleb Doyle grounded into a fielder's choice on the infield and its cleanup hitter Ryan Nippe grounded into a double play.

Twin Rivers' Wyatt Easterday collected a leadoff double to start the second inning. Michael Snider followed Easterday's hit with a single. The Royals' Bryce Tinsley then moved runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt and Green struck out Bennett Schultz for the second out of the inning.

Back-to-back two-out RBI doubles by Joe Foster and Chris Morse put Twin Rivers on top 3-0 in the second inning. Cade Lowe followed with an RBI-single to stretch Twin Rivers lead to 4-0.

Malden freshman reliever Toby Miller struck out Twin Rivers' Nippe for the final out of the second inning.

"I thought our best opportunity was to start Green and let him go as long as he could," Harmon said. "In the first inning he told me he was already not feeling well. We tried to get him through two and we couldn't.

"After that we were down to three freshman," Harmon said. "You just hate to throw those guys in that situation."

Malden rallied against Royals starting pitcher Nippe after falling behind early. The Green Wave plated three runs on three hits and two Twin Rivers errors in the top of the third inning. Malden's Dylan Earnheart and Mitch Coleman had RBI-hits in the third inning.

"Going against their ace when you get down 4-0 you feel like the wheels are going to come off early," Harmon said. "We fought back and got back in the game. Then we had a big defensive error that got Twin Rivers back in the game offensively and they had a couple of hits after that that broke the game open for them."

Nippe did not surrender a hit after the third inning on his way to a complete-game win on the mound. Nippe allowed three hits and struck out seven.

"I thought he threw OK," Walk said of Nippe. "Off-speed is still kind of a struggle, but he's still coming back. That's only his third or fourth start of the season. He's still trying to fine tune his stuff where everybody else has 10 or 12 games under their belt. He threw OK and located when he needed to. He threw his changeup decently. Overall, I felt like we executed pretty well pitching wise. His defense let him down that one inning and that was basically it."

Twin Rivers platted four additional runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and four in the sixth.

Foster finished the game 3 for 4 with two doubles and three RBIs.

"Joe Foster was an absolute man child today," Walk said. "He was racking the ball all over the field. I've never seen that kid hit the ball like he did today."

Morse finished the game 2 for 4 with two RBIs. Doyle, Nippe, Snider and Tinsley had one RBI.

Green took the loss for Malden, allowing four runs in 1 2/3 innings pitched. Miller allowed four runs in 1 2/3 innings pitched, Jeremy Wyatt allowed one run in 1 2/3 innings pitched and Brandon Stanley allowed four runs in 2/3 of an inning pitched.

Twin Rivers will play at the winner of Class 2, District 2, Monday in its Class 2 sectional contest. The Class 2, District 2, championship between top-seeded Clearwater and third-seeded Greenville is slated for Thursday at 5 p.m. at Clearwater.

Malden concludes it season with a 15-13 record.

"I thought offensively we hit the ball fine and had a couple of bad breaks," Harmon said. "Just hats off to Twin Rivers. They put themselves in the right place and did what it took to win."

No. 1 Twin Rivers 13, No. 2 Malden 3

MHS 003 000 - 3 3 5

TRS 040 414 - 13 13 3

WP - Ryan Nippe. LP - Darren Green. 2B - Mitch Coleman (M), Chris Morse (T), Joe Foster 2 (T), Wyatt Easterday (T). Multiple hits: Twin Rivers - Cade Lowe 2-4, Kaleb Doyle 2-4, Morse 2-4, Foster 3-4.

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