Mountain Grove holds on to beat Houston, falls late to Licking

In a match-up between two South Central Association (SCA) Conference rivals last week, the Mountain Grove Panthers’ baseball team led the Tigers, 2-1.
In their final at-bat, Houston started with a single and a pair of walks before the Panthers defense was able to get a fielder’s choice and another runner out trying to advance to second base. A final ground out to Luke Watson at second sealed the 2-1 victory.
Taylor Garner tossed six and a third innings and gave up no earned runs on five hits with two strikeouts and three walks.
Collin Wake tossed two-thirds of an inning and gave up no hits or earned runs.
Trace Harker led the offense with two hits and one RBI; Kason Rollins had two hits and one run scored; while Kayne Meyer scored one run.
One day later, Licking scored two runs in their final at-bat to beat the Panthers, 4-2.
Mountain Grove’s two runs came off Trace Harker’s two-run home run in the first inning. He finished with two hits, two RBIs and one run scored.
Rollins scored one run in the loss.
On the mound, Briar Parsons tossed six and a third innings and gave up two earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts and four walks.
Harker tossed two-thirds innings and had one strikeout.
On Thursday, the Panthers offense had just three hits in a 4-0 road loss to Ava.
Eli Golden tossed four innings and gave up three earned runs on two hits with four strikeouts and three walks. Wake tossed two innings and gave up one earned run on four hits with three strikeouts and two walks.
Mountain Grove ended the week with a 14-4 loss to West Plains, dropping the Panthers’ spring record to 7-11 on the season.
Sawyer Kidd and Watson both had one RBI while Wyatt Sparks, Golden and Meyer each scored one run.
Seth Thompson tossed two and a third innings and gave up three earned runs on four hits with four strikeouts. Harker tossed two innings and gave up three earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Brady Burnett tossed two-thirds of an inning and allowed five earned runs on three hits with one walk.