With Nixa’s Jackson Gamble and Glendale’s Drew Wedgeworth already established among SWMO’s premier hurlers, it wasn’t exactly a surprise to see a pitchers' duel develop in the Eagles’ home-opener Tuesday.
Actually, as Nixa coach Logan Hughes pointed out, what else would one expect from the Eagles.
“If we don't start swinging it, every game is going to be a pitchers' duel,” Hughes lamented after Nixa managed just five hits and bowed to Glendale 2-1.
Already, Nixa is off to an 0-4 start and dating back to last season, SWMO’s winningest Class 6 program over the past two years has lost six straight games. Over that span, the Eagles have totaled a modest seven runs and three times have been beaten by a 2-1 count.
Wedgeworth threw four-hit ball over his 6.2 innings on the mound. He was a Class 5 All-State Second-Team selection after posting a 1.14 ERA over 67.1 innings and throwing a no-hitter against Willard during Districts last season.
“He's a great pitcher,” said Nixa DH Broden Mabe, who was 1-for-3. “Last year, he threw a (three-hit shutout against Class 6 state champ) Liberty North, that was a tough feat. He’s tough to hit off of.”
“We've faced a lot of good pitching. But we're going to face everybody's best pitching,” Hughes said. “Obviously, I haven't done a good enough job getting our guys ready. We need to be more disciplined and take better approaches in the batter's box.
“Were a team built on speed. But we hit the ball in the air too much tonight," he added. "When you hit it in the air, nobody has to make a play and your speed is basically eliminated. We need to adjust and get more consistent line drives or hard-hit ground balls to help us utilize our best asset.”
Nixa’s lone run came in the third inning on a Wyatt Vincent double and a Caeden Cloud RBI-single. As Hughes noted,, both Vincent and Cloud went the opposite way against the left-handed throwing Wedgeworth for their hits.
“The inning we scored, our hits were to right field,” Hughes said. “We didn't do that consistently enough.”
Most often, Nixa hitters were out in front of Wedgeworth’s assortment of off-speed pitchers and thus susceptible to his curve ball.
Likewise, Gamble had Glendale hitters guessing wrong repeatedly. The right-handed junior already had reached six strikeouts with two outs in the third inning and finished with nine strikeouts over his five innings of work.
Gamble wasn’t able to throw past the fifth, as a few walks and a few fielding miscues behind him hiked his pitch count.
“I was hoping I could go deeper in the game,” said Gamble, who made a start last week that was limited to 60 pitches in Nixa' three-game California swing. “Nice weather like this, you need to fill up the zone. I had a few walks. The wind kind of threw me off. But I felt good. I had to trust my stuff.”
Gamble ended his outing by trusting his fast ball. After Glendale put runners on second and third with two outs in the fifth, Gamble recorded his ninth strikeout by throwing four straight fastballs to Dominic Licota, who had lined out in his previous at-bat.
“I don't think he was looking fastball. It froze him,” Gamble said. “I was happy about that. Early on, he had been very aggressive on the fast ball. I was trying to get the fastball up on him. I missed a spot and it happened to be a lucky miss. He wasn't ready for it.”
Glendale scored what proved to be the winning run in the sixth on a pair of infield singles and a pair of walks, including a two-out, bases-loaded walk.
Nixa scored just one run even with the lead-off hitter in its lineup reaching base in all four plate appearances.
Prior to his double in the third, Vincent reached on an error in the first, but was picked off after a rundown between first and second.
Vincent walked to lead off the fifth, moved to second on a groundout and made it to third on a flyout to center field. Jack Edwards was unintentionally intentionally walked, giving Nixa runners at first and third. On the first pitch to Gehrig Eoff, Glendale’s catcher faked a throw to second base, luring Vincent too far off of third and he was picked off.
“I'm most frustrated with our baserunning,” Hughes said. “We’re running ourselves out of innings. When you're not hitting very well, you can't give away outs and we're having that happen all too often. Bad baserunning mistakes, mental mistakes, not acceptable.”
Nixa was successful on its first two stolen-base attempts in California. But the Eagles’ running game was shut down the rest of the way.
“They picked us off about 50 more times,” Hughes said, exaggerating slightly, of course. “Those pitchers were good. They literally put (their pickoff throws) on the base every single time.”
Nixa made a bid to force extra innings against Glendale, as Caleb Jones singled and stole second with two outs. But that’s where he stayed as the game ended with a groundout.
Jones was impressive enough to possibly earn himself an upcoming start. The Eagles' lineup appeared a bit top-heavy.
“That's how you get more opportunities, take advantage of the ones you get,” Hughes said. “He can do a lot of things for us offensively. He gives us a left-handed option. He can really run, he's disciplined and a good bunter.
“It's hard as a coaching staff to pick the right ones because we've got so many good players,” Hughes added. "We tell the guys they've all got to be ready and when their number is called, step up.”
Glendale 2, Nixa 1
Glendale 001 001 0 - 2 6 3
Nixa 001 000 0 - 1 5 2
WP - Wedgeworth. LP - Fangrow.
