West Platte’s Kane Cogan helped the Blue Jays fuel a comeback against Mid-Buchanan and win 9-8 on April 20.
A 3-game losing skid for the West Platte baseball team (6-8) ended when the Blue Jays rallied from a 6-run deficit and took down Mid-Buchanan (9-6) in extra innings on April 20.
The Blue Jays had been beaten their last two conference games – a 7-6 loss to North Platte (10-4) on April 6 and a 9-7 loss to Plattsburg (13-8) on April 13 – and were also coming off a pair of defeats to St. Joseph’s Lafayette (4-10) and Cameron (8-8) on April 15 and April 18, respectively. West Platte went down early against Mid-Buchanan, trailing 7-1 midway through the fifth inning.
Jaxon Turner flied out in the first at-bat in the bottom of the fifth inning and the Dragons walked four batters in a row and then closed the fifth inning out with a double play. The Blue Jays entered the final inning down 7-2 but had three hits and five runs to tie the game.
Similarly to the fifth inning, the Dragons walked a pair of Blue Jays to put West Platte into scoring position. Xavier Reynolds doubled on a line drive to left field – sending Turner home – then Ezra Stigman scored on an RBI single by Cohen Kite at the next at-bat.
With the score being 7-4 and one out on the board, Kane Cogan stepped up to the plate and hit a pop fly. Mid-Buchanan had an error, allowing Cogan to reach first base, and Reynolds scored.
Drake Montez was walked, loading the bases. Gunner Smith had the game-tying hit when he hit a ground ball to left field and Kite came home.
Regulation closed out tied 7-7 and Mid-Buchanan took control in the top of the eighth inning. After an RBI-double, the Dragons went up 8-7 and once again, the Blue Jays went into the dugout with one last chance to extend or win the game.
Two of the first four Blue Jays got out, but the other two – Stigman and Kite – made it on base. The Dragons intentionally walked Cogan and Montez stepped up to the plate with his squad trailing by one run, with the bases loaded and two outs.
The freshman delivered, hitting a ground ball to the shortstop and sending Stigman across home plate for the game-winning run. Montez and Smith both had two RBIs on the night and Kite had a team-high two hits, while Alex Allison and Smith combined for seven strikeouts on the mound.
After the big win, West Platte went on to lose 4-2 to South Nodaway with Jefferson (10-1) on April 21. The Blue Jays will have four games left in the regular season, starting with a KCI Conference game at Lathrop (7-9) on April 25.