Durbin makes most of his start for Jays

If it weren’t Senior Night, Garrett Durbin wouldn’t have even been in the starting lineup.

But it was, he was, and his RBI single was the difference in Jefferson City’s 3-2 defeat of Lebanon on Tuesday.

The Yellowjackets knocked a two-run homer to left field in the seventh, but the Jays kept the lead thanks to Durbin’s line-drive to right in the bottom of the sixth.

“I noticed that when they hit that home run, that that was a pretty big run for us,” Durbin said. “I’m just glad that I was able to do that. Big night.”

Durbin had two of Jefferson City’s seven hits. His only out came on a hard liner to the second baseman.

“That’s what we need from him,” Jays coach Brian Ash said. “He needs to be consistently hitting the ball the other way and moving runners over.”

Lebanon’s two-run shot was the only hiccup for starting pitcher Blaine Meyer, who allowed just five hits while posting four strikeouts in 61/3 innings to get the win.

“He’s just going to compete and battle his (behind) off,” Ash said. “And that’s what he does, he keeps us in games, and he deserved a shutout, but he’s the one that gave up the bomb. Once he got a little tired, he left that ball up a little bit to a good hitter and he put a good swing on it and it went over.”

Some of Meyer’s fatigue can be chalked up to the Jays having groundskeeping duties before the game because of a downpour earlier in the afternoon. The game began about 30 minutes late, but the field was playable.

“The kids are out here working, so it takes a lot of energy,” Ash said. “And usually when you put all that time and effort into getting the field ready, sometimes you don’t always play very well. But fortunately for us we were able to, once again, just do enough to get the win.”

The right side of the infield was significantly wetter, which Durbin noticed while playing second base.

“Every time I took a step, I just sunk in,” he said.

Surprisingly, the game’s two errors occurred on the left side. Both were by Lebanon and each led to a Jefferson City run.

The Jays’ defense, meanwhile, was spotless, with left fielder Taylor Hartman making a leaping grab in the fourth and Grant Wood firing a throw from deep shortstop to first for a sixth-inning out.

“We made the plays that we had to. They didn’t,” Ash said. “… We’ve got to be able to do those things, because we’re just not built right now to go outslug somebody, so any mistake that another team makes we’ve got to take advantage of it.”

The first error scored J.T. Bohlken, who doubled in the first inning. The second scored Meyer, who singled to start the third and took bases on a sacrifice bunt and a popup.

The game remained scoreless through the next 21/2 innings until pinch-hitters Hayden Hirschvogel and Kade Franks walked and singled, respectively. Each advanced on a passed ball, but Hirschvogel was caught in a rundown. Franks scored from second on Durbin’s two-out hit.

“I was just seeing it pretty good,” Durbin said. “I don’t know, Senior Night, just wanted to come out and make a big impact on the game.”

Hirschvogel relieved Logan Schmitz, who relieved Meyer after the home run, and drew a lineout to center and a grounder to Durbin for the force at second.

“Hayden always throws strikes,” Ash said, “so putting him in that situation, I want them, especially lower in the lineup, to throw strikes up, put the ball in play.”

The Jays (19-5) host two games Saturday, Camdenton at 11 a.m. and Sedalia Smith-Cotton at 4 p.m.