Jul. 16—The Joplin Outlaws jumped on the Nevada Griffons with an early 2-0 lead, but that lead was quickly in jeopardy in the top of the third inning.
The Griffons were within striking distance of tying the game, perhaps even taking the lead.
Joplin left fielder Ethan Ellis refused to let that happen.
With runners on first and second and two outs, Nevada’s Braeden Hinton launched a deep drive to left field that had the trajectory of a three-run blast. But Ellis backpedaled to the warning track, leaped and made the catch at the wall to rob Hinton of extra bases and preserve the Outlaws’ lead.
“It was a high flyball, so I went back on it like I normally do,” Ellis said. “I noticed it was drifting a little bit more than usual with the wind. I just found the fence and put myself in a good position to jump up there and grab it. I was super excited when I came down with the catch. Obviously, it helped the team out.
“I love making plays like that. I do everything I can to help us win and get Ws.”
Joplin manager Chris Dawson called Ellis’ catch huge.
“The wind here plays tricks on me a little bit,” Dawson said. “When (Hinton) hit it, I didn’t think he hit it all that well. I thought he got it off the end of the bat and it would be a routine flyball. I was like, ‘Holy hell.’ But Ethan was camped and he made a jump (at the wall). I was like, ‘Oh crap.’ That was a great play. That kept them off the board. It gave us some momentum. It was a great catch.”
And in the final meeting between these two foes this summer, the Outlaws (13-16) finally defeated the Griffons 8-0 on Thursday night at Joe Becker Stadium.
“We finally got ’em,” Dawson said with a grin. “I’ll take it. We were able to jump on them early. That’s what I talked about in the locker room before the game. I said, ‘Hey, find a way to get on them early.’ Let’s ride from there. We had Gavin (Heltemes) on the bump. He has done a great job for us all summer long. If we jumped on them early, I knew we would take advantage, and we were able to do that.”
Joplin snapped a three-game losing skid with the victory and now rests in third place in the MINK South Division standings. With 10 games left on the schedule, the Outlaws sit only two games behind division leader Sedalia.
Joplin is back in action with the Clarinda A’s at 7 p.m. Friday at Joe Becker Stadium. Nevada hosts the Sedalia Bombers on Friday night at Lyons Stadium.
Joplin’s bats came out uber-aggressive against Nevada 6-foot-11 giant Will Jacobson. Brett Weimers led off the bottom of the first with a single before Caleb Feuerstake dropped a bunt and reached on an infield single.
After a sacrifice bunt from Logan Cline, Ethan Ellis roped a ball to left for a two-run single to get the Outlaws on the board first. Joplin scratched across three more tallies in the bottom of the third on a bases-clearing double from Jeb Jenkins.
That ballooned the Outlaws’ advantage to 5-0 over the Griffons.
Joplin struck for two more runs in the seventh to take a 7-0 lead. Jared Toler started the scoring by touching home on a wild pitch, and Ethan Lopez immediately followed with an RBI one-bagger to right.
The Outlaws scored their final run in the eighth when Feuerstake came in on a wild pitch.
In his first start of the season, Heltemes (2-1) was superb for the Outlaws. He allowed three hits in four frames, walked three and finished with five strikeouts. Zach Hill pitched three scoreless relief innings while Ward Richardson tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth.
“That’s just been Gavin all summer for us,” Dawson said. “He got here a little late because his team made it to a national championship. He’s just trying to get innings, so he came out of the bullpen for us. We were able to finally get him a start because of a couple of injuries. He’s on somewhat of a pitch count, but he gave us four strong and that was huge.
“Anytime he’s on the bump, we have faith that we are going to at least be in a ballgame and have a chance to win it.”
Four different individuals collected two or more hits for Joplin. Feuerstake and Ellis led the way with three knocks apiece
Jacobson (2-4) took the loss for Nevada (14-16). In addition to five earned runs, the towering southpaw surrendered seven hits, walked three and struck out two in four innings of work.
Jesse Fonteboa, Nick Chavez and Jack Swisher had the Griffons’ hits.
“It was nice to finally get those guys,” Dawson said. “Now, we are done seeing them, so I’m happy about that. They had our number all summer. Hopefully, this game is something we can take from and turn it around. We had a tough two weeks. I’m just happy I can leave the ballpark happy. It was a good win all-around.”