Baseball Bears Win 4 Games In a Row

The Ava High School Baseball Bears have won four games in a row after dropping the first two outings of the season.

The Bears will go to Cabool this afternoon (Thursday) for a big conference game with the Bulldogs. On Monday, the Bears will be back home against Mtn. View-Liberty in SCA play.

On Tuesday next week, the Bears will travel to Hollister to play a game rained out in March. Then, on Thursday, April 12, the Bears will host a varsity double-header with Mtn. Grove at 4:30 and Seymour at 6 o’clock, to make up another rainout.

The Bears opened the season with a 12-0 loss to the Zizzers at West Plains on March 27. Ava’s bats were silent with the Bears’ only hit being a single by Cody Wallace.

Kody Kutz was the starting pitcher and took the loss. Ben Loge also pitched for Ava.

Next action for the Bears was in the West Plains Tournament where the Bears lost to Neelyville on Friday night before winning two games on Saturday over Winona and Naylor.

In the Friday night game, the Bears scattered six hits but were only able to produce one run, losing the game 11-1.

Ava pitchers gave up seven hits but the Bears had eight errors in the contest.

The Bears finally got on track Saturday, taking a 15-4 win from Winona.

Ava pounded out 11 hits with Cody Wallace and Ben Loge each going 2-for-3 at the plate.

Jesse Johnson got the start for Ava and got the win.

Next the Bears faced Naylor and with a 9-1 win evened their mark at 2-2.

Chase Gastineau was 3-for-4 at the plate with a triple, three RBIs and two runs scored. Johnson was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored.

Loge was the starting pitcher for Ava and recorded five strikeouts in the game.

The Bears made the trip to Salem on Monday and picked up a big SCA win over the Tigers.

Loge had a strong pitching performance, going seven innings and striking out nine Salem batters in the 7-0 shutout win.

Ava had only four hits in the game but made each one count. Jeff Smalley and Johnson each had two runs batted in and Cooper Emerich, Gastineau and Kutz had an RBI each.

The Bears claimed their fourth straight win on the home field Tuesday, downing Springfield Central 11-1 in five innings.

Johnson started the game for Ava and went 2 1/3 innings before giving way to Wallace who would finish it.

Gastineau was 2-for-3 at the plate and scored two runs. Zach Leonard and Wallace each had two RBIs as Coach Rex Sawyer and the Bears improved their record to 4-2.