PREP BASEBALL: Bison’s bats go cold

STUARTS DRAFT – Buffalo Gap picked the wrong time to start struggling at the plate with runners in scoring position.

But that’s exactly what the Bison did Wednesday, falling 4-3 to Madison County in the Region B quarterfinals at Draft.

“That hasn’t happened to us in a while,” said Bison coach Chad Coffey.

The Bison also had trouble with their bats throughout the game.

“We were beating the ball right at them,” Coffey said. “We left it in their hands.”

Early on the Bison and Mountaineers seesawed with the lead and both teams made numerous errors.

Buffalo Gap got on the board early in the first when back-to-back throwing errors from Madison’s third baseman put runners in scoring position. A solid base hit from Gap’s Lance Hanger scored Ryan Sheridan.

The Mountaineers answered with a run of their own in the second off a Collin Tucker smack to left field, scoring Kyle Louk, and tying the game.

Gap came back in the third to take the lead when Sheridan slapped a shot into the left-center gap. Hunter Sandridge followed with a base hit to center field that was bobbled, sending home Sheridan.

“Early on it was just jitters,” Coffey said. “For us it was in base running, but both teams did a good job of settling down.”

It was in the fourth inning, however, when Madison took charge. The Mountaineers’ Jacob Houser ripped one up the third-base line. Travis Warren came up two batters later for Madison with a short hit to the pitcher, a Bison throwing error to first scored Houser. Matt Racer then stepped up and hit one just short of the right-field fence, scoring two more runs for the Mountaineers.

“We’ve had games where the top of the line up carried us and others where the bottom has,” said Madison County coach Tom Butterworth. “You never know who is going to be in that position in baseball.”

With the score at 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth, Gap’s Nick Corbin was not about to let the game get away from him as he led off with a home run over the right-field fence. The rest of the Bison were unable to follow in Corbin’s footsteps, though.

“He’s the one that got us back in the ball game,” Coffey said.

Corbin also pitched most of the game for Gap, but it was the final inning where he showed what he was made of. With Madison leading 4-3, Corbin came to the mound with a vengeance and single handedly ousted all of the Mountaineers with three strikeouts.

“He did a tremendous job on the hill,” Coffey said. “He really showed his heart in the seventh.”

The Bison were unable to back up Corbin’s pitching though.

“That kid [Corbin] came in and threw really well,” Butterworth said. “For him to come in like that and do the job he did, my hats off to him.”