Bradley's Taylor Duggan (16) is safe at second as the ball gets past Hixson shortstop Manny Velazquez (1). The Bears defeated the Wildcats, 7-2.
photo by Dennis Norwood
The Hixson Wildcats played on pretty-much even terms with the Bradley Bears for most of their game at Hixson’s John Plumlee Stadium, but that was before the Bears batted around in the seventh inning to score four insurance runs in a 7-2 victory.
It was a good weekend for the Bears as they competed with a number of teams in the New Balance Chattanooga Classic hosted by East Hamilton.
Saturday’s win over the Wildcats gave Bradley a 3-0 mark for the tournament as the Bears beat Signal Mountain on Friday, Boyd-Buchanan in Saturday’s first game and then the Wildcats in the last one. Bradley is now 11-10 for the season as they await a big District 5-AAA series with Ooltewah starting on Monday.
The Bears made four errors in that last win over Hixson, but starting pitcher Jasper Flowers wasn’t bothered as he went the distance and gave up the two runs on five hits while walking one and striking out four. Only one of the two runs was earned and that was a solo homer leading off the fourth by right fielder Jacob Tobias.
Bradley coach Travis Adams looked a bit tired when Saturday’s last game had ended, but he was also satisfied over the week his Bears had on the field.
“It’s been a long week, but I thought Jasper Flowers did a good job on the mound as he threw strikes for the most part. We had a few miscues along the way, but nothing too outlandish, as our defense played well enough to win,” he said afterward.
“It was a close game for a while, but it was nice that we could get those insurance runs in the seventh. Our goal this weekend was to limit our strikeouts and to not beat ourselves. I feel like we did both of those, but we have a big series with Ooltewah on Monday and we just need to carry this momentum forward,” the veteran coach added.
Kane Johnson pitched six innings for Hixson as he allowed three runs on five hits while walking two and striking out eight. He was replaced by Manny Velazquez in the seventh trailing by one, but Velazquez had a tough time as he allowed two walks and two hits while getting only one out. All four of those runners eventually scored to break open a close game.
Hixson coach Colton Green thought his team played pretty well for the most part, but there were a couple of areas that his their chance at success.
“I thought Kane pitched a good game, but base running blunders killed us,” he said after his team dropped to 10-6 with three losses in four games during the tournament.
“Kane’s pitch count was getting on up there and that’s why I pulled him. Manny had a tough time was he may have been a little tired, but Bradley is a good team and I’m glad we got to play them.
“Our bats went cold and that hurt, but I didn’t think we played bad defense. We just have to have more hits and to keep from making those silly mistakes on the bases,” Green added.
Ashton Simmons dropped a beautiful bunt with two outs in the third and went to second when the throw to first was wide. He advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a single by Ethan Lamberth to give the Bears the early lead.
Bradley added two more in the fourth.
Aiden McClary led off with a walk and scored on a double by Daniel Cox. A Hixson error put runners on second and third before Dakota Peace reached on a fielder’s choice. Iverson Vasquez, who was the beneficiary of that error, was caught in a rundown between second and third for the third out, but not before Cox scored to make it 3-0.
Tobias led off the Hixson fourth with a solo homer to right on a 3-2 count, but Flowers retired the next three hitters in order to avoid further trouble.
The Wildcats got within 3-2 with another run in the sixth.
A.J. Wild and Johnson both had singles to lead off with courtesy runner Cole Shackleford advancing to third on an unusual double play where Tobias grounded to second for the first out before Wild was caught in a rundown for the second out as Shackleford raced to third. He then scored when Flowers made a bad pickoff throw as Shackleford was way down the line toward home.
It was still anybody’s game going to the seventh before the Bears broke it open with their four runs.
Skylar Crittenden and Cox each drove in runs with singles while Simmons plated a third on a sacrifice fly to center and McClary on a grounder to second.
Brad Dossett ripped a sharp single to left on the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh, but Cooper Bailey bounced into Hixson’s second double play of the game before Flowers struck out Sam Lott swinging to end the game.
McClary and Cox both had two hits for Bradley while Johnson was the only Hixson player with two hits.
Bradley rolled to a 13-0 five-inning win over Boyd-Buchanan in its first game on Saturday.
While Bradley has a challenging series with the Owls, starting at Ooltewah on Monday, Hixson returns to action on Monday as the Wildcats host Tyner.
BRADLEY 001 200 4 – 7 8 4
HIXSON 000 101 0 – 2 5 3
Flowers and Lamberth; Johnson, Velazquez (6), Moyer (6) and Lott.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)