As the quiet Belton baseball fans glanced at Tiger Field’s scoreboard in the fifth inning and saw the home team in a 3-all tussle with Killeen Shoemaker, many wore a confused look of “What the heck is going on?”
Considered to be one of District 12-5A’s title contenders, Belton was expected to overmatch the Grey Wolves, who aren’t predicted to be in the playoff picture and have never reached the playoffs in their nine-year school history.
Instead, the Tigers needed John Nieberding’s run-scoring single in the fifth and some stout pitching and defense to scrape by Shoemaker 5-3 on Friday night.
“I take the blame on this one. I should have gotten these guys better prepared than what I did,” said first-year Belton coach Eddie Cornblum, whose team improved to 10-4 overall and 2-0 in district play.
“You get in a situation like this in a 5-3 ballgame with a team you think you should be beating a little better than that, you learn from it. I think we learned a lot from tonight on how to prepare for each game and not take anything for granted.”
The Tigers outhit the Grey Wolves 7-2, all singles, left 10 runners on base to just two by Shoemaker and didn’t make an error while their foes had three.
“I don’t care if we’re playing Shoemaker or Klein or whoever - you have to be out there playing like it’s the last game you’re playing,” Cornblum said.
Belton jumped off to a 3-0 lead after two innings and looked like it would cruise.
Garrett Vail singled home Justin Dechert and Dillon Newman scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead after the first. Brett Hernandez scored on Shane Hoelscher’s fielder’s choice in the second.
Tigers starter John Beck needed just 42 pitches to breeze through the first three innings without allowing a hit.
Cornblum stuck with his gameplan of using four pitchers and brought in sophomore Tyler Vail, who walked the first three batters he faced. Stephan Young scored on a passed ball and Gerald Lenderman’s run-scoring single grazed the top of Hernandez’s glove at second to trim the lead to 3-2. Mark Todd later scored on Elliot Hilliard’s groundout to tie the game.
“I’m not happy with a loss one bit, but our kids have progressively gotten better every year,” said Shoemaker coach Randy Culp, whose 5-8 squad lost to Bryan 7-3 in Tuesday’s district opener. “You can take something like this and build on it. That’s something that’s a plus for us. We know we can beat anybody on any given day.”
In the fifth, Nieberding’s hit popped out of first baseman Hilliard’s glove to bring home Kevin Thornton, and Seth Alcozer came home on a wild pitch for a 5-3 lead.
Winning pitcher Justin Rhea got into a jam in the sixth. With Shoemaker runners on first and second and two outs, third baseman Newman fielded a chopper on an in-between hop and gunned to first to end the inning.
“Great plays at third - that’s stuff he practices all the time,” Cornblum said. “He can come and get the ball and get rid of it in a hurry.”
Nick Wright needed just six pitches in the seventh to record his third save of the season. Newman went 2-for-4 for the Tigers.
“I’ll take it on my shoulders for not having them prepared,” Cornblum said. “We have to do a better job of when we get in a game like this no matter who it is.”
Belton will play at 7 p.m. Tuesday at College Station A&M Consolidated.
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
