The offense went quiet for Capital City.
After an impressive offensive weekend at the Jays Baseball Classic, the Cavaliers put together only two hits and three walks in a 12-1 five-inning loss to the Class 6 No. 6 Rock Bridge Bruins on Tuesday at Capital City High School.
“We just talked about being team players,” Capital City coach Brett Skinner said. “There were a lot of little things we did kind of selfishly. It’s not how you’re going to beat a team that’s ranked in Class 6 and pull off an upset.”
Capital City scored its lone run of the Central Missouri Activities Conference matchup in the bottom of the first when Justin Sullens walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Noah Nicklas and reached third on a Brock Miles grounder through the left side of the infield. After Miles took second on a wild pitch, Ben Turner sent a fly ball deep to left field for a sacrifice fly.
“It’s a great group of kids, we’ve just got to figure out how to play together consistently,” Skinner said. “When things are going well, we’re through the roof, the energy is through the roof. When things start to not go well, we’ve got to be able to keep that energy up. If we do that, we’re going to be fine.”
The Cavaliers had Blake Holtmeyer reached third in the second after walking and advancing two bases on two errant pickoff throws, and two in the fourth when Turner singled and Hayden Carroll walked, but could not get another run across.
“Offensively, we jump out of the box away from pitches too many times,” Skinner said. “We’re not hitting very well, so we’ve got to find ways to get on base. … It puts pressure on the defense, puts pressure on the pitcher and lets us have a big inning and build momentum.”
On the other side, Rock Bridge couldn’t stop getting runners on. The third was the only inning the Bruins were sent down in order.
Rock Bridge sent seven batters to the plate in the first, collecting three hits, two of which were doubles, and a walk to plate two runs on RBI doubles from Crew Norden and Owen Wise. The Bruins added four more in the second, all with two outs, when Braedyn Boatright doubled in Will Kimes and scored on a wild pitch, then Andrew Hill walked, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error.
Norden finished the second-inning scoring when he walked, moved to second on the error and scored on Wise’s second RBI hit.
The Bruins added five more runs in the fifth, starting with a Kimes home run just under the scoreboard in left field, then Boatright and Hill both singled and Norden walked to load the bases. Wise collected his third, fourth and fifth RBI with a triple that rolled to the wall in right field, then scored on a Dane Gray sacrifice fly.
The final run came in the top of the fifth when Kimes reached on a walk, took second on a wild pitch and scored when Jacob McGinty came on to pinch hit and sent a slow roller up the middle for a single.
“We were a little lazy defensively,” Skinner said.
Carroll started on the mound for Capital City, throwing three innings and allowing six runs -- five earned -- on five hits and four walks, while striking out two. Brian Pace pitched the final two innings for the Cavaliers, allowing six runs on five hits and a walk, while striking out four.
“It’s just back to the little things and we don’t do them well enough all the time,” Skinner said.
Capital City (5-8, 0-3 CMAC) will return to action with a matchup at Class 5 No. 5 Camdenton at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
“The biggest key is you’ve got to learn from it, it’s got to drive you to want to get better,” Skinner said. “You see the level of competition, if you want to be at that level, it’s one thing to say you’re going to work on it and be good, but it’s another to actually go out there and do it. Put the work in. It can be good and bad, the conference isn’t going anywhere, the talent around Mid-Missouri isn’t going anywhere. We’re going to have to step up and do a better job of competing.”
Rock Bridge (13-2, 3-0) will try to keep its 10-game winning streak alive when it begins play Wednesday in the Columbia Tournament.