MINK League baseball: Bombers drop home finale to Ozark, fall half-game behind Nevada

With every step forward, the Sedalia Bombers seem to take two back.

A day after scoring a crucial 13-5 win at Nevada to reassume control of the MINK League South Division, the Bombers dropped a 6-3 stunner to the 13-24 Ozark Generals in the regular-season home finale on Wednesday at Liberty Park Stadium.

Meanwhile, the Griffons took care of business with an 11-5 win over Joplin to move to 21-14 and a half-game ahead of the 22-16 Bombers, who had won four straight entering Wednesday night.

“We didn’t take care of business tonight,” Bombers skipper Jud Kindle said. “I think we still have a shot, an outside shot. Hopefully Nevada makes a mistake and we take care of business.”

The Bombers will have take care of business on the road as they end the season with four road games. In comparison, the Griffons play just three of their final seven on the road.

“It’s going to be tough, but our guys just have to be more consistent like the previous four games and hopefully we can give ourselves an outside shot at it,” Kindle said.

The Bombers were held off-balance by Ozark starter Tony Balcazar, who entered the contest with an ERA just south of 9 and an 0-4 mark.

Despite the rough season, the slender right-hander dialed it up and hit his spots, striking out eight and allowing just three runs — one earned — on eight hits in a complete-game gem.

Bombers starter Kevin Lenkman had no such luck. The John Wood southpaw allowed five runs — three earned — on five hits and a walk to fall to 2-4.

The Bombers, though, gave him some early run support thanks to a Generals’ fielding miscue.

Pierce Bily led off the second inning with a harmless grounder to short, but Chris Glynn botched the play to allow the UC-Irvine outfielder to reach first. Bily then advanced to second on a errant pickoff throw from Balcazar and was later driven in by a Koby Peebles single to right.

The Generals quickly answered with a pair in the third.

Jacob Harrison led off with a single, stole second and was sacrificed to third by Jack Henry. Lenkman then walked Glynn before serving up a RBI single to Mickey Armstrong.

The southpaw looked primed to escape the frame after inducing a sure-fire double play to Kody Pinson, but according to the first-base umpire, first baseman Dylan Mays left the bag early to allow Pinson to reach and continue the inning. A batter later, a wild pitch allowed Glynn to score from third to stake the Griffons to a 2-1 lead.

Lenkman never recovered. An inning later, he walked the leadoff batter and gave up back-to-back hits, the last a Derek Locascio RBI double over the head of Bily. Down 3-1 with men at second and third, Lenkman got Harrison to ground into a 6-3 RBI putout, but with Locascio attempting to advance to third, Mays’ throw skipped past Kyle Hardy to allow another unearned run to score.

“That’s baseball,” Kindle said. “Sometimes things just don’t go your way.”

In relief, University of Missouri right-hander Jeff Emens silenced the Generals with three scoreless frames to set the stage for a rally.

Loading the bases with two outs in the eighth via a hit, a walk and an error, the Bombers plated two when Balcazar failed to catch a toss for a putout at first that would have ended the inning.

After watching his team cut the deficit in half, Bombers closer Justin Sprenger gave up a run in the ninth, and Balcazar capped off the Generals’ win with a 1-2-3 ninth.