Oak Grove takes two from Travelers

Jordan Pannell had a rough time of it in Marshall's second game Wednesday, but it wasn't all his doing. (Chris Allen/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The Marshall Travelers baseball team had a few glimmers of hope Wednesday, but not enough went right to keep up with the Oak Grove Bats American Legion squad.

The visitors scored 28 runs -- aided by 16 walks, five hit batters and seven errors for 14 unearned runs -- to take both ends of the doubleheader, 11-4 and 17-3, the latter in six innings.

After a dropped fly ball gave Oak Grove a run in the top of the first inning, the Travelers scored twice in the bottom half of the frame -- begun by singles from Jacob Phillips and John Lozano, who came in when Tanner Dillon was plunked with the bases loaded and Brock Musick grounded to third base for the first out.

However, Marshall left the sacks packed without adding to its total, eventually stranding nine runners.

Would that have mattered?

Likely not, since the Bats came alive in the third by putting together the first of their two huge rallies of the night -- plating eight runs on six hits, a walk and two errors. Landon Grego, Vince Walrath and Richard Luna had RBI singles during the spree for Oak Grove.

Meanwhile, after their early noise, the Travelers were unable to get much going at the plate against Greg Shores -- who blanked them for five stanzas before running into trouble in the seventh.

Phillips singled and Lozano walked, with the first of two runs scoring on a one-out error and the second on Musick's single. Again, Marshall's inning came to an end with the bases loaded.

The Bats had only one hit in the first inning of the nightcap, a run-scoring single by Luna, but scored three times. Paul Shores smashed a two-run single in the top of the third for a 5-0 lead.

The Travelers got two of those runs back in the bottom of the third on singles by Mike Castle and Phillips, followed by Lozano's double, but the effort went for naught when Oak Grove (16-13) exploded for nine runs on five hits -- including back-to-back RBI triples by Zak Anstine and Grego -- and a critical two-out error in the sixth.

Ryan Smith doubled and scored on Dillon's sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the sixth, but Marshall couldn't prevent an early end to the game.

The Travelers (4-13) are hoping for a better fate on the road today when they play at Warrensburg.