WARDSVILLE, Mo. - Behind strong outings from Bryce Pritchett and Clayton Grassle, Blair Oaks swept two games Saturday afternoon, defeating Camdenton and Eugene to open its baseball season.
The Falcons beat the Lakers 5-2 and posted a 2-0 win against the Eagles.
Pritchett started on the bump in the first game, giving up two earned runs on five hits while striking out eight in five innings of work.
"I thought Bryce did a good job," Blair Oaks heach coach Harv Antle said. "I didn't feel like he had his normal command, kind of fought his command a little bit. He was able to make pitches when he needed to. We know that he can be better. He was able to control counts and make pitches when guys were on, and if he pitched himself into trouble, he was able to pitch himself out of it. That's what you're looking for out of your number one."
Graessle took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, but allowed a hit to the first batter in the final frame, which prompted Antle to pull Graessle after 70 pitches.
"We did send him back out it the seventh, give him a shot, but with the condition that if he allowed a baserunner regardless on how he reached, walk, hit or error, that he was done," said Antle. "He agreed to that."
Graessle struck out seven and his lone walk came in the first inning.
"I came out in the first, I was pretty dicey," said Graessle. "After that, I was pretty comfortable and I was in control of most of my pitches and able to locate them pretty well. The third inning, I was thinking no-hitter. I made the mistake after the sixth inning of saying no-hitter, so that's my fault."
In the first game, Blair Oaks fell behind early. Camdenton's Brady Kempf singled with one out and Bryan Hoffman doubled to center to get things started. Jake Decker grounded out to third base to score Kempf and Cole Wilson struck out to end the inning.
"I just had to calm down," said Pritchett. "I had first game jitters, you know? The ball was way up, so I just had to bring it down."
After the Falcons went down in order in the first inning, they plated three runs in the second to take the lead for good. Jacob Wilbers reached on an error and Mason Gipe doubled to center field. Alec Sieg brought in the runs off a double to left and he scored off a Pritchett sacrifice fly later in the inning.
Blair Oaks added two more in the third when Gipe walked with the bases loaded and Dalton Fifer executed a safety squeeze to score Dylan Hoelscher.
"The bunt was a weapon for us," said Antle. "We were able to use it to move runners and in one situation, we were able to use it to score. We had some guys come through in some key situations."
James Reinkemeyer pitched a scoreless sixth inning and Ryan Paschal earned the save in his first varsity appearance of his career.
"When you're trying to close the game out, that's not the easiest spot to be, but I thought he had pretty good velocity and he was able to locate his fastball," Antle said of Paschal.
It was a little hard to manufacture runs for the Falcons in its win against Eugene. Blair Oaks stranded six runners, one in each inning.
"I felt like some of our at-bats were less than quality," Antle said. "We chased some pitches up in the zone and we elevated the baseball in the air. Any time you hit the ball in the air in a park this big, you're probably going to be an easy out unless you really get it. Unfortunately we didn't get that many balls that good today."
Gipe tripled in two runs in the third inning, the only offense of game. Gipe was 2-for-5 with 3 RBI in the two games.
"We had one timely hit," Antle said. "As far as something to work on, we'll come out to the ball park tomorrow to work out, we'll take a good long round of BP. We'll try to have better at-bats. We're looking for line-drives and hard ground balls at the plate. Just having the understanding of that you got runners on, you've got to take advantage of these opportunities."
In Eugene's first game of the afternoon, the Eagles defeated Camdenton 12-2 in a five inning 10-run-ruled game.
"I was tickled," Eugene head coach Mark Richard said. "We've been on the field three times this spring so far. A lot of cage work. These guys have bought into it and they're really liking it and having fun and playing hard for me. I was really proud the way we played."
An offensive explosion in the fifth inning allowed the game to be shorten. The Eagles scored eight runs in the inning and all but one player in the lineup crossed home plate.
Corey Love and Blake Rains paced Eugene's offense as they went 3-for-4 and 2-for-3, respectfully. Love scored twice and had an RBI, while Rains had four RBI, three in the final inning on two at-bats.
Love started the game on the mound, pitching four innings, allowing five hits and two runs. Love gave up the two runs in the first and second inning as the Lakers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.
"He's one of those pitchers that the more he throws, the more comfortable he gets on the mound and his stuff gets better as the game moves on," said Richard. "So when he gives up two or three early, that doesn't usually bother me."