Republic defeats Joplin to clinch share of COC title

Apr. 30—Ryker Harrington and Gavin Walker brought the lumber to the yard for the Republic baseball team.

In a matchup with Central Ozark Conference title implications, the two seniors combined for four runs driven in as the Tigers (15-6, 7-0 COC) defeated Joplin 5-3 on Thursday afternoon at Joplin High School.

The Eagles, who led 1-0 after two innings, fell to 13-8 and 5-2 in conference play, tied for second place with Webb City.

"If you are going to win big games against good teams, people talk about little things, but there are winning things," Eagles coach Kyle Wolf said. "Throughout the course of the game, we had some opportunities ... bases loaded and two outs. It's going to be hard to score sometimes, but some of the other things, catching it and throwing it, being locked into a situation and understanding what we need to do there. We didn't do a very good job and we have to compete a little bit better."

Republic clinched at least a share of the COC title with the win.

"It was a huge win for conference and district," Tigers coach Curt Plotner said. "Kyle does a great job. I'm sure we will see these guys down the road somewhere.

"We have been getting good at-bats up and down the lineup all year. Gavin in the 9-hole, not a whole lot of people expect that, but he has been tough for the last couple of weeks. Ryker put a good swing on one. He has done that a couple of times this year. Those were two key at-bats by two seniors. We were able to make it hold up."

After David Fiscus worked a bases-loaded walk to get Joplin on the board in the opening frame, Republic struck in a big way in the top of the third.

Gavyn Becker reached second on a one-out double to right. Harrington, a Jefferson College commit, gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead with a mammoth two-run shot to right that completely cleared the ballpark.

"He definitely hit it as well as he has hit one," Plotner said. "He's a really strong kid. He has hit a few balls like that this spring, so it didn't really surprise me."

One inning later, Walker provided a two-run double to right, increasing Republic's advantage to 4-1.

The Eagles scored two runs on two hits in the bottom of the fourth to trim the deficit to 4-3 when Bodee Carlson drew a bases-loaded free pass and Fielding Campbell produced an RBI single.

The Tigers scored their final tally after Harrington came across on a fielding error in the sixth.

That proved to be sufficient run support for Cole Iles, who tossed the final 3 1/3 shutout innings in relief. The right-hander, who was the winning pitcher, struck out three batters and limited Joplin to two hits.

"He came in today and gave us a huge shot in the arm," Plotner said. "He has a curveball that he can throw for a strike and get ahead of guys. That makes his fastball look a little harder. He does a good job of mixing speeds and using both sides of the plate."

The Tigers amassed nine hits in the contest, led by Kyle Hill with a two-hit performance

Campbell permitted four runs on eight hits in three innings for Joplin. Josh Harryman followed in relief, surrendering one unearned run on one hit. The submarine righty fanned five batters.

Kohl Cooper, Alex Curry, Carlson, Campbell and Fiscus all tallied hits for the Eagles.

"I think we may be trying to press a little bit too much and not understanding we don't have to hit the ball 400 feet to score two runs," Wolf said. "We can hit it 100 feet if it's in the right spot. We have to fight through it, stay short and get the barrel through the ball, and move the baseball somewhere. We had some good at-bats, but I thought we had some uncompetitive at-bats when we really needed somebody to get something going."

Joplin travels to Carthage to play Smithville at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Eagles also play Carthage at 3.