Knights defense falters in loss to Jr. Billikens

FARMINGTON — Unlike Friday’s come-from-behind win in the seventh inning, the Farmington Knights received no help from pitcher Brian Howard in Monday’s game as he set the Knights down 1-2-3 in the seventh to secure a 5-2 win for the St. Louis University High School Junior Billikens.

Howard wasn’t overpowering, but he was overwhelming as he limited the Knights to only five hits while striking out five and yielding 12 ground outs in his seven innings of work.

On the Knights mound, Logan Bradley was also pitching a solid game with six K’s. Even though Bradley gave up eight hits in his six innings, it wasn’t the Billikens bats that did the greatest damage to the Knights’ chances.

Six errors by Farmington’s infield allowed four unearned runs to cross the plate for St. Louis. Only a three-hit start to the third inning gave the Jr. Billikens their lone earned run. L.J. Hernandez led off the inning with a bunt single, but an attempt to steal second was vanquished with a perfect throw from catcher Connor Davault.

If Hernandez had waited he would have scored with the next batter Kaleb King hitting a triple to the wall. Willie Floros followed with a double and scored when a delayed steal resulted in a throw into left-field. The two extra-base hits were the only ones given up by Bradley.

Farmington scored the first run for their only lead in the game in the first inning after Bradley had a 1-2-3- inning to start the game. Davault drew a walk and a wild pick-off throw put him on second  for Bradley to drive him in with a double in right-center.

St. Louis (3-1) took the lead in the second inning with the help of two flagged-at, hard-hit, grounders.

The Knights started their fifth-inning at-bats with three straight hits as Alex Pinkston lofted a ball into right that was lost in the sky by the rightfielder for a lead-off double. Jared Dunlap singled to put runners on the corners, and Davault picked up the RBI with a seeing-eye grounder through the hole at short.

Farmington (2-2) will start conference play today at Potosi.

St. Louis U.  022 100 0 – 5  9  1

Farmington  100 001 0 – 2  5  6

WP- Brian Howard 7i 2r 5h 5k 2bb, LP- Logan Bradley 6i 5r 1er 8h 6k 0bb.

HITTING:

St. Louis – Kaleb King 2-3, Paul Simon 2-3, Charlie Nester 1-2, Bryan Maas 1-3, L.J. Hernandez 1-4, Willie Floros 1-4, Andrew Pitts 1-4. 3b- King. 2b- Floros. LOB – 6.

Farmington – Connor Davault 1-2, Logan Bradley 1-3, Rider Garrett 1-3, Jared Dunlap 1-3, Alex Pinkston 1-4.  2b- Pinkston, Bradley.