Blair Oaks baseball gets first win of season vs. New Bloomfield

Blair Oaks earned a 7-1 win against the New Bloomfield Wildcats Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville, Mo.
Blair Oaks earned a 7-1 win against the New Bloomfield Wildcats Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville, Mo.

WARDSVILLE, Mo. - The Blair Oaks Falcons never led in their first two games of the baseball season. When they took the lead Tuesday, they never let go of it.

A combination of good pitching, stellar defense and timely hitting lifted Blair Oaks to a 7-1 win against the New Bloomfield Wildcats at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

"We didn't swing the bats as well today as we did the other day, but we did enough to win," said Mike DeMilia, who earned his first win as the Falcons' head coach Tuesday. "But when you pitch and play defense, you don't have to do great offensively."

Blair Oaks grabbed its first lead of the season in the bottom of the second inning on a solo home run to left field by Parker Bax. After needing 16 innings this season to get their first lead, the Falcons wouldn't give it back.

"To play with the lead is a lot different," DeMilia said. "It puts the pressure on them."

The Falcons used a pair of underclassman pitchers to quiet the New Bloomfield bats.

Freshman Cade Stockman pitched four shutout innings to earn his first career win, allowing three hits and three walks while stranding three runners in scoring position. Stockman also finished with five strikeouts, the last stranding runners on second and third base to end the top of the fourth inning.

"He's a pretty competitive kid, he's been through a lot with football and he doesn't get rattled real easy," DeMilia said. "He's going to be a good one, and he's got a long way to go."

Sophomore David Dell threw the last three innings for the Falcons, striking out two and allowing one walk.

Blair Oaks catcher Maclaine McCarter kept it a one-run game with a trio of defensive gems. He caught a runner stealing second base in the second inning, then picked off a pair of runners at first base in the third to get the Falcons out of a jam.

"Cade and David threw very well, but Maclaine making those couple of throws really helped out," DeMilia said. "If you get some cheap outs here and there, it just makes it easier on everybody."

New Bloomfield starting pitcher Nick Hammann finished with eight strikeouts and, aside from Bax's homer, held the Falcons in check the first three innings.

But Blair Oaks added a pair of runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to extend the lead to 5-0.

"He was fighting that pitch count early, but he battled for it and kept us in the game early," New Bloomfield coach Justin Forsythe said. "Things just didn't go our way late."

Bax had a two-out, two-run double into the left-field corner to plate two more runs in the bottom of the sixth, making the score 7-0.

Bax went 2-for-3 with three RBI to lead the Falcons. Seth DeWesplore and Ian Nolph each had one double and one RBI, while McCarter and Jacob Stegemann each had one single and one RBI.

Blair Oaks had just six hits in the win but managed to put 16 runners on base.

"We didn't have a ton of hits, but I was proud we worked some counts, got walks and got hit by four pitches," DeMilia said. "I always talk that we need to score as many runs with as few of hits as possible, and we did that today."

Hammann went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles to lead New Bloomfield. Breycin Dysart hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh, scoring Robbie Bradley for the Wildcats' only run.

"We're extremely young," Forsythe said. "I started three freshmen tonight and we have just one senior (Hammann). I think we're putting a little too much pressure on ourselves as a young team, but it's early, that's the good thing about it."

Blair Oaks (1-2) hosts Linn at 10 a.m. and Vienna at 2 p.m. Saturday. New Bloomfield (1-2) plays Thursday at Tipton.

In Tuesday's JV game, Blair Oaks won its season opener 15-1 in three innings.

Jacob Rademan struck out four batters to earn the win, while Shane Gillmore collected two hits and three RBI. Riley Lentz finished with two hits and two RBI, Stockman had two hits and Noah Kesel drove in two runs.