Baseball: Cooper accounts for three runs, Spearfish tops Sturgis

Tag : Tank Tops

Jess Cooper, who joined the Spearfish team when the Belle FourcheLegion program disbanded due to shortage of players, led Post 164with four hits and three runs scored in five plate appearances.

Jordan Johnson chipped in two runs and two base knocks. Rick Whitealso had two hits for Spearfish. Johnson, making only his secondstarting pitching appearance of the season, limited Sturgis to sixhits. White relived Johnson for the final three innings.

“Both Jordan and Rick did a great job,” Spearfishmanager Matt Kemp said. “Jordan did a great job working outof jams.”

Eli Bueno led Sturgis with a pair of hits.

Post 33 held a 1-0 edge, tallying a run in the bottom of the firstinning. Kasidy Huffman’s RBI double opened the scoring.

Spearfish took the lead for good with a trio of runs in the top of the third. Justin Kemp lined a one-out single, stole secondbase and rode home on a triple by Johnson, who came home on anerror. The third run of the inning come on another error. TheTitans committed nine miscues in the contest.

Sturgis shaved the deficit to 3-2, scoring one run in the home halfof the third on a sacrifice fly by Trevor Potts.

The visitors plated one run in the fifth, three in the sixth andtwo runs each in the seventh, eighth and ninth.

“If we play baseball the way we are capable of, we can beatanybody,” Kemp said.

Huffman pitched the initial five and one-thirds innings for Post 33and took the pitching setback.

“They (Spearfish) out-hustled us. They out-played us. Theyout-hit us,” Sturgis manager Nic Ewing said. “Ifanything went wrong, we went in the tank. I was disappointed in oureffort and our attitude.”

Spearfish competes in a tournament in Powell, Wyo., this weekend.Sturgis travels to Rapid City Post 320 on Friday.