Sometimes, it’s best to have a short memory.
The Emporia Post 5 AAA team will want to completely forget its fifth straight loss on Wednesday at Soden’s Grove, a 12-2 run-ruling at the hands of Arkansas City Post 18 that left coach Brad Kelly struggling to salvage any redeeming value.
Ark City finished the scheduled nine-inning game in seven innings, putting runs on the board in every inning but the second. The visitors were hot at the plate, pounding out 16 hits, but the AAAs gave them some help, particularly during a four-error top of the fifth.
Kelly saw neither execution nor effort — and he let his team hear about it in a quick postgame talk.
“I don’t want to call ’em out, because it’s tough,” he said. “We’ve only got nine guys. At the same time though, there’s a fine line between being too lenient on ’em and getting on ’em too hard. But I don’t know. I don’t think we came to the ballpark tonight with the intentions of not winning. I think we wanted to win, and that’s what our goal was at the get-go. I think, a nine-inning game like that, we just gave up too quick.”
It was 8-0 by the time the AAAs finally got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth with a two-out rally. Henry Ott singled to lead off the inning, and after Ark City recorded two outs, Adam Ewy grounded to short and reached on an error to score Ott. Two batters later, after another error by the shortstop extended the inning, Michael Knight brought Ewy home with an RBI single.
Emporia didn’t score again, although the AAAs did have six hits in the final three innings after managing just one single in the first four. Ott and Knight each had a single and a double.
Other than that, positives were tough to come by. Ark City scored one run off AAAs starter Ryne Cook in the first inning, then scored two in the second and one in the third before blowing the game completely open with the error-filled fourth. Zach Schuler, who had pitched a lot over the weekend in the Mike’s Classic, relieved Cook before Knight finished the game on the mound.
“It’s disappointing, too, with the fact that last time we played ’em, we came out and played a good game and we beat ’em,” Kelly said. “And it was one of those games where at least I felt confident that we had a pretty good chance to compete in the game, but win it. And we came out flat, they scored a few runs and our body language got bad, and it was just kind of over from there.”
Trying to think of any individual positives, Kelly hesitated for a long while.
“I think Zach Schuler does a good job,” he said. “And he pitched twice (over) the weekend. I wasn’t planning on pitching him today, but I put him in there because I thought he’d throw strikes. And he hustles around, but I don’t know — I think this was one he just kind of hopefully can forget about next time he comes out.”
Ark City’s Brent Burroughs had four hits, including a pair of doubles. Blake Burroughs, Jason Young, Drew Palmer and Justin Weaver each had two hits.
The AAAs travel to Pittsburg on Saturday, where they’ll take on Blue Valley West at 2:30 and Pittsburg immediately following that game. On Sunday, they’ll play the same two teams, beginning at 11 a.m., to close their regular season.
Wednesday at Soden’s Grove
Arkansas City 12, Emporia AAAs 2 (7 innings)
Arkansas City 102 143 1 — 12 16 4
Emporia 000 020 0 — 2 7 5
WP — Armfield. LP — Cook.
2B — ARK: B. Burroughs 2, Ott, Knight.