Tigers unable to slow down Orchard Farm in district championship

Odd are, the four senior member of Mark Twain’s baseball team are having a hard time understanding why the Missouri State High School Activities Association gives out second-place plaques in districts.
In three of their four years as members of the program, Nathan Smith, Logan Anderson, Jacob Lewton and Kris Campbell have had season’s end holding the aforementioned trophy – including Wednesday’s 10-0 loss to Orchard Farm – a sad reminded of what might have been.
“Those four will be hard to replace. They’ve done a good job for our program,” said Mark Twain coach Alan Koch. “The kids coming up have seen that and I expect for us to rebound….We just haven’t been able to get over that hump…I just hate to have them go out like that.”
The Eagles jumped on Lewton, the Tigers starter, in the bottom of the first inning and Orchard Farm starter Zach Pugh made it stand up.
The top-seeded Eagles would score five times in the opening frame and add three more in the second to take a commanding lead, while Pugh kept Mark Twain off the base paths for much of the night. The Eagles senior right-hander would allow just one hit – a fourth inning single to Lewton - while striking out 11 in the five-inning contest.
“We knew we were going to see their good pitcher. We talked about how we needed to put the ball in play and obviously we didn’t,” Koch said. “We knew coming in they were a really good hitting ball team and they hit the ball really well. They hit the ball in the holes on the infield and it just kind of felt like from the git-go that it really wasn’t our night. I thought our guys hung in there and tried to fight back, but we just couldn’t get anything started against him.”
In their three district games, Orchard Farm outscored opponents 37-3 in just 15 innings to claim their third straight district title.
Mark Twain’s best chance to get on the scoreboard came in the first inning when Zach McClelland reached on an error and advanced to third with two out. John Pryor – a courtesy runner for Lewton in the fourth – also made it to third but was also stranded.
“I would have liked to have  seen us score once or twice against (Pugh) because he only had one more inning left and once you get into their bullpen you don’t know what can happen,” said Koch, whose team finishes with a 12-6 record. “We just couldn’t get it done today.”
Orchard Farm would end the game with one out in the bottom of the fifth when Mike Lane singled home Jimmy Plackemeier with the Eagles’ 10th run of the game.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your hat to the other team,” added Koch.
The game was originally scheduled to be played at Palmyra, but wet field conditions forced the game to be moved to Mark Twain’s home field.