Mason County Eastern battles, but falls short in district semifinal setback to Brethren

BRETHREN — Mason County Eastern’s baseball team entered the bottom of the seventh inning of Friday afternoon’s Division 4 district semifinal game needing nine runs just to potentially force an extra inning.

It certainly didn’t seem possible, given the Cardinals lack of offensive clout, as well as defensive shortcomings up to that point.

Helped along by some porous defensive play by the Brethren Bobcats, who mishandled some hard shots off the Cardinals’ bats and made some throwing errors, the Cardinals came back, but fell short in an 11-6 loss.

“We had baserunners the first three, four innings and just couldn’t get that big hit to drive them in,” Eastern coach Ward Stever said as the players grabbed their things from the dugout and prepared to leave the park.

“Which could have changed the whole game. Zach Howe started on the mound, and honestly, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

The Cardinals had no seniors on the roster and leaned on the leadership of juniors like Howe and fellow junior Clay Shoup.

Both stepped up big Friday, especially Howe, who did not let the Cardinals troubles defensively affect his pitching.

Eastern trailed the Bobcats, 10-0 as Howe left the mound after the top of the sixth inning and the Cardinals down to their final three outs.

Aaron Drake lashed a double into right field and raced home when Keegan Nelson timed up an offering from Brethren ace Robert Clark and knocked out a single.

“We scored that one run in the sixth to keep us going,” said Stever. “We stepped up big in that seventh inning, and just ran out of time. It’s a tough loss. But we can build from here on out. Basically, we played the whole season with nine players and no senior leadership. The two juniors stepped up and led the way all season long. We have some eighth graders coming up next year who are good ball players.”

Eastern’s bats finally came alive in the bottom of the seventh, and the Cardinals threw a real scare into Brethren.

Ron Hasenbank, Clayton Logsden and Howe all had hits, while Shoup, Nelson and Drake all reached base on errors. The Bobcats also compounded their problems by throwing the ball around, moving the Cardinals around the bases.

Brethren was unceremoniously eliminated from further action in the post-season with a 15-0 loss to Bear Lake in the district final. It is the second consecutive title for the Lakers.

Eastern closed out the season with a 6-15 record.