Defensive lapse

Four errors were too much for the Cavemen to overcome Monday night.

Hannibal gave the visiting Slippery Rock Sliders too many chances with some less-than-stellar glove work. The Sliders plated seven runs on the night, and only two were earned. The two happened to come in the top of the ninth inning, breaking a 5-5 tie and giving Slippery Rock a 7-5 win.

“Any loss you don’t want to have,” Hannibal manager Jay Hemond said. “We just didn’t have the defense that we’ve been playing. Those runs were the difference.”

The Cavemen’s poor defense first showed up in the fifth inning. Up 2-0, the Cavemen let the Sliders tie things up with some misplays. With two outs, shortstop L.J. Watson had trouble coming up with a grounder and allowed Erick Miranda to reach first. The error was Watson’s second of the day. The next batter, Sean Mahley, clubbed a double to score two.

Watson’s night would get worse from there. Hannibal starter Brooks Fiala loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth. On a full count, the Sliders’ Zach Hofer grounded sharply into the hole at short. Watson fielded the ball cleanly, but his throw to first sailed past first baseman Ryan Porter and bounced off the facade of the seats near the Sliders’ dugout.

Two runs would come around to score as Porter made his way to the ball. Porter tried to get Hofer at second, but his throw was too late. While the ball was heading toward second, Kyle Mossbarger rounded third and scored the third unearned run of the inning and the fifth unearned run of the game.

Hofer’s grounder was the last pitch Fiala would throw on the night. He pitched 5 2/3, walked two and allowed five hits while striking out three. He gave up five unearned runs.

Reliever Eric Wooten got the Cavemen out of the sixth and seventh, surviving another error by Watson, his fourth of the game.

Paul Sewald entered the game in the top of the eighth inning and kept the Sliders in check, keeping the Cavemen trailing just 5-2.

In the bottom half of the eighth, the Cavemen took off. After Gardner Richey struck out, Shelby Anderson took one for the team to advance to first. It was the second time the Sliders hit Anderson — he was plunked in the head in the fourth. Matt Burton followed with a walk putting two on for Nick Rountree. The Hannibal backstop smacked a double

in the left field corner to drive in both Anderson and Burton for his second and third RBIs of the game.
Two batters later, Watson got some redemption with an RBI basehit to score Rountree and tie the game at 5-5.

All the momentum had shifted toward the Cavemen and it appeared the home team would be celebrating its fifth walk-off win in the bottom half of the ninth inning. But Slippery Rock wasn’t ready to give up.

Sewald retired the first two batters before giving up a double to Jeremy Banks. He worked Matt Baer into an 0-2 count before missing with a ball. The crowd, and the Cavemen bench, thought ball one might’ve been strike three.

“From our angle, it looked good,” Hemond said. “It might have been a couple of inches off the plate. We can’t see in and out from our angle, we can only see up and down. It looked like it was high enough, but it might have been a little off the plate.”

Given a new life, Baer hit a sharp liner past a diving Curtis Ford to drive in the run and break the tie. Derek Carr followed with a sharp shot off Anderson at third base. Baer would scored before Anderson could gun Carr down at second base.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Cavemen couldn’t get a rally going. Gardner Richey was left stranded on base and the Cavemen lost 7-5.

“We couldn’t answer that time,” Hemond said.

Hannibal is now 7-8 in the second half and in fourth place in the Western Division. The Cavemen are 2.55 games behind the Quincy Gems and Dekalb County Liners.

The Cavemen will remain at home today to take on Dekalb County. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m.