It was going to be the greatest comeback of the summer for the Jefferson City Renegades.
But it came up one run short.
Trailing by eight runs after four innings Monday night, the Renegades rallied with five runs down in the bottom of the ninth inning to force extra innings against the Nevada Griffons. However, a two-run home run by Trevor Kimm proved to be the difference, as the Griffons held off the Renegades for an 11-10 win in 11 innings at Vivion Field.
"We were down 8-0 and we fought back," Renegades manager Mike DeMilia said. "We thought we had them. We were one pitch away from getting out of that (11th) inning. ... Lots of things happened today, but that's been the story the last two weeks, and we've lost so many games just like that."
The Renegades' largest comeback this season previously was July 4, when they trailed the JC Legends 7-0 after 5 1/2 innings and rallied to win 11-10 in 10 innings.
"We battled the whole game," DeMilia said. "The effort was there, the 'want to' was there. It's just a couple defensive plays got away from us ... but that's the way it goes.
"We had a big hit to tie it, but then they got the big hit to take the lead, and we couldn't quite get it done in the 11th."
Kimm's home run - which hooked just inside the left-field foul pole on an 0-2 count with two outs in the top of the 11th - was the fourth of the night for the Griffons.
Dom Hernandez crushed a three-run blast over the shed beyond the left-field fence, putting Nevada ahead 3-0 just three batters into the game.
"That kind of set a bad tone for the game," DeMilia said.
In the third, Hernandez homered again with a solo shot, and Chris O'Neal followed with a two-run homer to straightaway center to make the score 6-0.
The Griffons added two more runs in the fourth to build an eight-run lead.
For the next six innings, the Renegades' bullpen allowed just one run on four hits. Jefferson City pitchers recorded 17 strikeouts in the game. Connor McKenna, Xander Lovin and Lane Threlkeld each struck out five.
"When you're down 8-0 and you get put in the game, you just have to keep it close. You just have to give the offense a chance," DeMilia said of the Renegades' relief pitching. "They did that."
The Renegades' offense got things going in the fifth with back-to-back RBI hits by Dede Cole and Peyton Leeper. In the seventh, two more runs scored on a pair of errors, trimming the deficit to 8-4.
Trailing by five runs to start the bottom of the ninth, Nevada relief pitcher Brayland Skinner hit the first batter he faced, then walked five of the next seven batters that stepped to the plate.
With two outs, Max McCay, Brock Stewart, Cole and Leeper drew consecutive walks on a span of 22 pitches, cutting the Griffons' lead to 9-7.
"Every pitcher has his tempo, and obviously his was pretty fast," DeMilia said of Skinner, who allowed five earned run in two-thirds of an inning. "But that was fine with me. He wasn't necessarily in a groove, so I was OK with that."
Nevada brought in Rece Martin to relieve Skinner, and the first batter he faced, Paul Haupt, hit a single back up the middle, scoring Stewart and Cole to tie the game at 9.
Haupt just missed driving in two runs on a fly ball to the warning track in the eighth, but this time, he capitalized in the clutch for the Renegades.
"He's just a good hitter," DeMilia said. "He doesn't panic in any situation. He'll take a couple bad swings, but he's confident enough in himself that he's going to have a good third swing."
The Renegades stranded runners on first and third base to end the ninth, and finished the game with 14 runners left on base.
"We did get some key hits today," DeMilia said. "There have been some games where we barely scored and left a bunch of guys on. When you're scoring runs, you're going to tend to leave some guys on base."
Neither team scored in the 10th. Ryan Missal was hit by a pitch with two outs in the bottom half of the inning. Griffons manager Will Loza was thrown out of the game by the home-plate umpire, arguing Missal leaned into the pitch and did not attempt to get out of the way.
"He tried to protest the game, but you can't protest a judgment call," DeMilia said.
In the 11th, Kimm's home run off Shane Fontenot with two outs put Nevada back on top 11-9.
Leeper crushed a solo home run to left field - his fourth homer of the season - with two outs in the bottom half.
"We competed the whole game," DeMilia said. "I have no complaints about that. ... We kept battling."
Haupt stepped up to the plate, representing the tying run, but Martin got him to ground out to the shortstop to end the game.
Leeper finished the game 3-for-5 with four RBI, while Haupt batted 2-for-7 with two RBI. Cole scored three runs and drove in two more.
Ian Jacobs finished 4-for-4 at the plate from the No. 9 spot with four singles to lead Nevada (12-19, 12-18 MINK League).
Jefferson City (16-19, 12-19 MINK League), which dropped to fourth place in the South Division and trails the Griffons by half a game for the last playoff spot, will continue its homestand at 5 p.m. today with a doubleheader against the Ozark Generals (16-16, 16-14 MINK League).
"We're a little snake-bitten right now, but sometimes you've got to make your own luck," DeMilia said. "I'm not going to make too many excuses about it, but it is a little frustrating. It just seems like a lot of things are going against us."