Cooter and Caruthersville meet in the Malden Invitational Baseball Tournament

The Caruthersville Tigers and Cooter Wildcats had a busy schedule between April 14 and 15. After playing a series of games, both teams were being scored on how they played the previous day. As day two arrived, the Tigers and Wildcats arrived at the Malden sports complex only to discover their names listed in the consolation bracket.  Both teams had to play two back-to-back games before their matchup, and after a four hour break, the Tigers and Wildcats met on the field for the final game of the tournament to take place on that field. In the end, the Cooter Wildcats defeated the Caruthersville Tigers 13-4.

Caruthersville won the coin toss and elected to bat first, serving as the away team. Dylan Smelley was to start the game as pitcher. After a rough first inning, the Tigers caught a break with an RBI double from Charles Golliday, leading to a run from David Cook off of third base.

The Wildcats were still scoreless after their attempt to snuff out the Tiger’s lead in the first and second innings. The Tigers continued their tear in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Bryce Strawn leading to a score by Seth Faulkner. Following the Tiger’s bat, Cooter once again was held scoreless by the terrific performance of the Tigers. Taylor Moses was exceptional on the mound as he held the Wildcats scoreless before being taken out due to a new rule implemented this season by Missouri State High School Athletics Administration that limits the amount of pitches a pitcher can throw before being required to have a specific length of rest.

This was a huge hit to the pitchers on the Caruthersville team because a combination of multiple games in the past two days and the pitch count rule left little pitching options.  Having expired most available pitchers, the Tigers were forced to use other players to pitch. Following this big change, the Wildcats took advantage of the undisciplined pitching. They scored six runs to take a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Caruthersville was held scoreless in the fifth inning while Cooter added two more runs to go up, 8-2. The Tigers rallied in the top of the sixth with two runs in attempt to close out the deficit, however, the Wildcats tacked on five additional runs and ended the game by expiring the game with the two hour time limit. The Cooter Wildcats came out on top, scoring 13 over the Caruthersville Tiger’s 4. The Wildcats finished the tournament 2-2 while the Tigers were 1-3.