Chillicothe baseball played Maryville in their first game of the Pony Express Tournament in St. Joseph on Monday night.
The Hornets were the first to strike. In the top of the first, Max Wagers drew a walk to lead things off and then Hagan Atchinson unleashed a home run to deep center to put Chilli up by 2.
The scoring came to a halt until the away half of the 4th inning, when the Hornets exploded for a five spot. Wagers brought home two when he doubled to left field. That made it a 4-0 score.
With two outs in the 4th, Brock Ward switched places with Wagers by doubling to center field to make it 5-0. CHS would add two more in the inning taking a commanding 7-0 lead.
Then in the top of the 5th, Chillicothe would make it 9-0 when Trent Keith scored on a ground out by Wagers.
Wagers had his third great start in a row, lasting 4 innings he gave up just one hit and walked five while striking out five.
Once Wagers exited the bullpen faltered and Maryville found their offense. They scored 4 runs in the 5th . Maryville’s Connor Drake had a bases clearing double with the bases loaded to power the offense. Still 9-4 in favor of Chillicothe.
Then in the 6th, the Spoofhounds found even more offense. They tied it at 9 by bringing home five runs. Maryville’s Spencer Scott punched a single to right that racked up two RBI.
We were on to extra innings and the game was held scoreless through the 7th and 8th. The Hornets would go down in order in the top of the 9th.
Then in the last half of the 9th, Maryville’s Adam Patton walked to start the inning. On his steal of second, Brock Ward balked on the mound which awarded 3rd base to Patton.
The Hornets would lose, 9-10, on a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Patton moments later.
Chillicothe’s bullpen combined to allow eight hits, 10 earned runs, nine walks and just five strikeouts in 4.1 innings.
Chillicothe will continue to battle in the Pony Express Tournament tonight when then play division foe, Savannah, for the second time in eight days.
