Excelsior Springs varsity baseball coach Aaron Holst and his Tigers are hoping to breathe easier this week.

The Tigers had nine wins entering the week, which began Monday with a 12-5 road loss to Kearney and continued Wednesday with a 3-0 home loss to Winnetonka. Weather permitting, they have three more opportunities to secure win No. 10 – Friday at Raytown, and a triangular Saturday in Sedalia with Camdenton and Smith-Cotton.

Getting that 10th win would help the Tigers breathe easier for a few reasons, according to Holst. One reason is its effect on seeding for the Class 4 District 13 Tournament in mid-May. During the district seeding meeting, it would help him make the case for a higher seed, he explained.

“We need something to hang our hat on,” Holst said April 20.

TWO OUT OF THREE

The Tigers put themselves in position for win No. 10 by taking two out of three in a weekend homestand. On April 19, they thumped Ruskin, a Kansas City-based school, 14-4. They then split their April 20 games, falling 10-6 to Smithville and downing Pleasant Hill 6-2.

Smithville jumped in front with a four-run first inning. The Warriors then added three runs in the top of the third. Excelsior Springs answered with four runs in the bottom of the third.

The Warriors tacked up a run in the fourth and two runs in the top of the sixth. The Tigers scored their final two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

It was Excelsior Springs’ second loss to Smithville this season. The Warriors cruised 13-0 in the first meeting, held April 3 at Smithville. In the rematch, “I at least saw some fight that I liked,” Holst said.

Pitchers Kaelan Bedford and Klayton Glaspy helped lead the Tigers to their win over Pleasant Hill. Bedford, who started, struck out 10 through four innings. His stat line also included two runs, two walks and one hit allowed.

High fastballs helped Bedford get his strikeouts.

“Going into it, I just focused on throwing fastballs, trying to get ahead in counts and then make them chase (pitches),” he said.

Glaspy struck out five, and yielded two hits and a walk in his three relief innings. The junior used his curveball to keep Pleasant Hill in check, he and catcher Hunter Scoma agreed.

Originally, however, Glaspy had planned to throw fastballs, he said.

“It kind of got rough that first inning,” Glaspy said. “And then, that second inning, I started to find a curveball a little bit. And Hunter just kept putting it down. … I shook him off that first inning and they hit one … (really) hard, so I just kind of went with him. And it kept working, so I just decided to listen to him.”

Offensively, Scoma drove in Excelsior Springs’ first run. With one out in the first, the junior doubled in Ryne Marcum.

“(I was) trying to put the ball in play, hit the ball hard somewhere and I did somehow, some way,” Scoma said.

Pleasant Hill junior Carter Harrison’s two-out, RBI single made it 1-1 in the top of the second. Excelsior Springs reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the second with Glaspy’s two-run, two-out single.

Jace Faezel scored on a wild pitch in the third for Pleasant Hill’s final run.  Scoma singled in Glaspy in the fourth and the Tigers added two runs in the fifth to finish the scoring.