The Chillicothe Mudcats dropped another game to the Joplin Jailbirds on Saturday evening, and get swept in the two-game weekend set with the Jailbirds.
There was no score through an inning and a half on Saturday evening, and the Mudcats once again struck first. This time it was in the bottom of the second inning. Canon Creason reached on a throwing error by the Jailbirds, and Cole Adair scored on the play to make it 1-0 Mudcats after two innings.
Joplin answered right back in the top of the third inning with a pair of runs to take the lead. Eric Williams Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to left field scoring Jose Gomez, 1-1 after that. Later in the inning, Drew Vonder Harr smacked a base hit to score Brady Stull and give the Jailbirds the 2-1 advantage after three innings.
That score stuck through the middle innings as it was another defensive duel on Saturday evening.
Joplin broke the scoring drought in the seventh inning with a pair of runs. Jose Gomez scored on a Mudcat error, 3-1 Jailbirds, and Brady Stull scored on a groundout to the shortstop by Drew Vonder Harr. 4-1 Joplin after the top of the seventh.
Chillicothe cut ever so slightly into the lead in the bottom of the seventh, Slater Hooke scored after Jevon Raboy stole second base allowing Hooke to come home and cross the plate after Raboy drew the throw down to second base. 4-2 Jailbirds after seven.
Joplin put one on the board in the eighth, Mason Williams came home to score on a passed ball to make it 5-2 Joplin with an inning and a half to play.
The Mudcats hung around in the bottom of the eighth, they got one across on a JP Gonzalez double out to center field that scored Cole Adair on the play, and made it 5-3 Joplin. The story of the night for the Mudcats was their inability to get runners across when they were in scoring position. They left 11 runners on base on Saturday evening, and stranded them loaded in the eighth.
Joplin added a couple of insurance runs in the top of the ninth to put the game out of reach. It was Drew Vonder Harr again for Joplin, he singled in Brady Stull and Jordan Tucker to make it 7-3 Joplin.
The Mudcats weren’t able to send any across in the bottom of the ninth and the Joplin Jailbirds take the game Saturday evening by the final score of 7-3.
Chillicothe plummets to 2-13 on the season, and lose for the fourth straight game.
The Mudcats are back in action at home on Sunday afternoon (weather permitting) against the St. Joseph Mustangs, first pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. from Shaffer Park.