By Cade Haak
JOPLIN, Missouri (July 20, 2024) – Texarkana and Joplin played a hard-fought battle Saturday that ended with Joplin winning by a razor-thin margin after a late comeback put them ahead to win 6-5.
The Rhinos started the game off on the right foot by scoring in the top of the second. This single run was represented by Antonio Sabala, who scored when Mason Sellers hit an RBI single into left field. In the top of the third inning, the Rhinos continued their success by scoring three more runs to push their lead to 4-0. First, a new face for the Rhinos, Aiden Otano, hit a single to start the inning, then later came across to score when he was batted in on a single from Antonio Sabala. After this RBI single, Ian Guanzon hit a single to load the bases, and two walks occurred to score the next two Rhinos runs.
The next two innings saw the Outlaws begin to chip away at the Rhinos lead. They scored one run in each of the next two innings before both teams’ offenses screeched to a halt.
Following the offenses stopping for both sides, the next runs came in the bottom of the 7th when the Joplin outlaws scored four runs to put themselves ahead of the Rhinos by two. With the score at 6-4 in Joplin’s favor, the Rhinos scored one more run when Rylan Evans tagged up to score on a sacrifice fly into left field from Neil Jansen. Despite this final run, the Rhinos still fell just short.
Zach Andrews pitched a good game for the visiting Rhinos, throwing 5.0 innings and allowing six hits and two runs in the process. Xavier Fosbenner got the win for Joplin after coming in as a reliever early and pitching 5.1 innings and giving up 0 earned runs.
