Marion Nine falls to Mt. Vernon, 9-6
MARION - The good news is that Marion nearly came back from an eight-run deficit.
The bad news is that Marion fell into an eight-run deficit and lost to Mt. Vernon, 9-6, Tuesday in a South Seven Conference baseball thriller at the Crisp Sports Complex.
Marion dropped to 7-2 overall and now has an uphill climb with an 0-1 mark in the conference. Mt. Vernon moved to 7-4 and 2-0.
The Rams took an early lead when pitcher Weston Brockhouse singled in a run in the second inning, then drove in two more during a four-run rally in the third against Marion starter Mitchell Jackson.
That rally started with a home run by Parker Wielt and was followed by a walk and hit batter. Hunter Simmons ripped a two-out RBI double before Brockhouse's second hit.
"Mitchell had a little trouble locating today and they're a really good hitting team," said Marion coach Marty Manfredo. "If you're throwing 2-1 or 3-1 pitches all day long, they're going to make you pay. They did a really good job, especially early, of making us pay when we were behind in the count."
Marion got on the board in the third when Austin Palmer scored on a wild pitch, but the Rams made it 9-1 in the fifth when Simmons plated another run with his third hit and Brockhouse lifted a sacrifice fly for his fourth RBI.
Jackson hadn't given up a run yet this season until Tuesday but did have six strikeouts amid the rough outing. A misplaced outfield throw and an infield error didn't help.
"I didn't think we handled the adversity early like we should have," Manfredo said. "I told them after the second inning that this was the first team we've played this year that's a really good team and we're facing adversity and let's see what happens. Well, I don't think we got our heads up until we got a few runs in and we can't do that.
"Defensively, we have to shore up better than that. We dug way too big of a hole early ... It took us three or four innings before we decided we could play with them."
Brockhouse recorded six strikeouts and left in the fifth with his team leading 9-1 and the Wildcats pounced on his replacement, Brock Wilkey, who threw two straight wild pitches to bring in runs after Palmer doubled, Jake Griffin delivered one of his four hits and Jackson hit a fly ball to left field that was dropped.
Noah Mofield also smacked an RBI double and the Wildcats were suddenly back in the game. But the Rams asked Blake Dees to relieve Wilkey and he quickly stopped the bleeding. Dees didn't give up another run and struck out both Cavan Cameron and Jackson in the sixth with two runners on base.
"We competed," Manfredo said, "but we've got a lot of things that maybe up until this point haven't shown up as weaknesses, but now as a coaching staff, we know some things we need to work on."
Marion was scheduled to play at Belleville Althoff on Thursday after the paper's deadline. This coming week, Marion travels to Cahokia on Monday and then heads to Centralia on April 11.