86ers take second in Smoky Ford Invitational

It was a weekend of improvement for the Pratt 86ers, but the team ran up against a very tough pitcher in Sunday’s championship game of the Smoky Ford Invitational and wound up in second place.
The 86ers started the tournament with three straight wins to take first place in their pool and reach the title game against the Princeton Rebels.
On Thursday, Pratt routed the Hutchinson Hawks 11-3. The 86ers needed a furious comeback to get past Osawatomie 12-11 in nine innings Friday night, but they followed it up with a much easier 12-6 win over Alva, Okla., on Saturday to finish 3-0 in pool play.
Their first place finish moved the 86ers into Sunday evening’s championship game against Princeton, who also went 3-0 in their pool.

Championship Game
Princeton 6, Pratt 3
The 86ers’ seven-game winning streak came to a halt against Princeton and ace pitcher Shawn Talkington, who limited Pratt to three hits in the game.
Talkington struck out 12 batters and walked three. The 86ers had only nine baserunners the entire game, and they stranded five of those.
“We just didn’t do much against him,” 86ers coach Smoky Ford said of Talkington. “He was bringing it. I’d say 87, 88 miles an hour.”
Pratt’s only runs came in the first inning as Chris Nicholson and Colton Matthew got on base thanks to back-to-back errors on the Princeton second baseman. With one out, Skylar Angood crushed a Talkington pitch into home run territory to give the 86ers a 3-1 lead after one inning.
But from there on, Talkington shut the 86ers down, giving up just two more hits and facing just five batters over the minimum in the final six innings.
Princeton managed ten hits against losing pitcher Joe Dohrmann, who walked four and struck out three in seven innings of work.
Through five innings, Dohrmann had limited the Rebels to two runs on five hits, but Princeton got a run in the sixth to tie the game and then got a leadoff home run in the top of the seventh, plus four hits in a row to score two more runs and take the lead.
Talkington retired the 86ers in order in the bottom of the seventh, preserving the win and the championship for his team.
Caleb Gillig had two of Pratt’s hits and Angood drove in three runs with his first-inning home run.

Pool Play
Pratt 12, Osawatomie 11 (9 innings)
Friday night’s game provided plenty of drama as the 86ers rallied with five runs in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings against Osawatomie.
“We had a great comeback in the seventh inning,” Ford said.”
Nicholson, the fourth 86er to pitch in the game, allowed just two baserunners in the eighth and ninth innings to give his team just enough chances to win.
He gave up one hit and hit one batter, but got plenty of help from the defense behind him as neither runner got past second base.
Bryant Theis led off the bottom of the ninth with a triple, then scored on Angood’s fly ball to left field to end the game with Pratt winning 12-11.
Theis had three hits in the game while Brad Richardson had two hits and four RBIs.
Angood and Matthew each had two hits as well.
The 86ers made their comeback in the seventh by stringing four hits and a walk together.
Nicholson walked to start the inning, then Matthew, Theis, Angood and Richardson all singled before Osawatomie could get the first out. All five batters scored in the inning to knot the score at 11 runs.

Pratt 12, Alva, Okla. 6
In Saturday’s pool play finale, the 86ers cruised past Alva, Okla., 12-6 as Matthew scattered ten hits in six innings on the mound and the 86ers backed him with 14 hits.
Most of the damage was done in the fourth inning as Pratt scored seven runs on seven hits to grab an 8-0 lead.
Alva got four runs in the top of the fifth, but the 86ers added three more runs in the fifth and another in the sixth.
Matthew and Richardson, who replaced him on the mound for the seventh inning, shut down the Renegades in the last two innings to preserve the win.
Nicholson and Theis each had three hits for Pratt while Angood and Richardson had two each and Zach Pixler had an RBI triple in the second inning.
Eight of the 86ers’ nine batters had at least one hit in the contest.
The 86ers are 7-1 in their last eight games, adn they will be back in action Thursday at Newton. Games will begin at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Pratt’s next home games will be Friday night against the Hutchinson Hawks, also at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The 86ers will also travel to Russell on July 6 for a doubleheader before returning home for four straight doubleheaders on July 9, July 11, July 15 and July 17.
All games except the July 11 doubleheader against Alva will begin at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Smoky Ford Field, and the 86ers will face Alva at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on July 11.