Republic Baseball withstood a late surge from Joplin to capture a pivotal 7-6 win on Tuesday, putting an end to a string of tough conference losses.
Garrett Lester and Trace Harrington powered the Tigers’ offense, each blasting a home run. Lester led off the third inning with a solo shot, igniting a six-run frame that gave Republic a commanding 6-1 lead. After Joplin scored two more to cut into the lead in the bottom of the third, Harrington added a solo homer in the fourth, providing an important insurance run.
Caide White notched the win, fanning nine batters over five innings while surrendering five runs. Myles Lozano, bouncing back from a rough appearance at Lebanon, slammed the door with two innings of relief to secure the save.
“I just wanted to throw strikes and get ground balls and let our guys make plays and obviously not let them score any runs,” Lozano said. Lozano said he got a little nervous when the Eagles put the tying run on first base in the seventh inning, but settled down and stayed mentally tough. “Confidence in my stuff was important there, and just throwing what I know to throw,” he said.
The victory bumped Republic’s record to 12-9 overall and 1-2 in the Central Ozark Conference, delivering a shot in the arm to team morale following a series of close defeats in the late innings over the past few weeks. They had also lost a lopsided game at Lebanon on Friday in their last outing.
“We talked on Friday after the loss about team morale and not carrying that on to the next game. Kind of forgetting and moving on,” Lozano said. “So our goal here was to get a win and not carry on those close losses that we’ve been having. I think this win really helped us to move on from that, and hopefully we get it rolling here for the next couple games.”
The Tigers finished the game without second baseman Ryder Davis, who left with an injury after colliding with right fielder Jackson Overstreet as they converged on a pop-up in the second inning. Overstreet was also shaken up but stayed in the game for a while before exiting later.
Republic will play against Wednesday against Carthage. That game has been moved up a day because of the forecast of heavy rain on Thursday.