Host Fike struggles in Wood Bat openers

Maybe the pressure of being the host got to them.
Coming into the 21st Annual Wood Bat Invitational, the host Blue Springs Post 499/Fike had won 19 of their last 22.
“We had been hitting really well, we had played six games with wood bats and won all of them,” manager Jim Moran said.
Fike, however, dropped the first two games of the Wood Bat tournament, the first a 5-0 setback to the O’Fallon (Mo.) West Jaguars, and the second, a 2-1 heartbreaker to the Omaha (Neb.) Oakview Construction Skyhawks.
Matt Perrine started the first game for Fike and struggled early, giving up three runs in the bottom of the third and two more insurance runs from the Jaguars in the sixth. Two of the RBIs came from West center fielder Brandon Smith, who went 2-for-3 and stole home in the second. Perrine stayed for 51⁄3 innings before Alex Worman relieved him in the sixth.
Fike had the chips stacked against them with a solid lefty in Christian Hull, who threw a complete-game shutout, giving up only three hits and one walk while striking out six.
“Hull threw a great game,” Moran said. “We just didn’t hit at all.”
The second game started off much better for Fike, which scored an early run off Skyhawks pitcher Ryan Bolt in the top of the second. Alex White, after going hitless against the Jaguars, hit a one-out double and scored on Josh Hightower’s single.
But Bolt shut down Fike from there, giving up just one more hit while walking one and hitting another and fanning eight in a complete-game win.
Danny McMurtrey started for Fike and fared well until the bottom of the sixth, where he walked the bases loaded before Ryan Leonardo belted a two-run single into left-center field.
“I just kind of lost control and I got squeezed on a couple of strikeouts,” McMurtrey said. “I tried to keep it close, didn’t let it get too out of hand. But we just couldn’t hit.”
White said McMurtrey deserved a better fate.
“He had a great game. He got out of jams when he got in them,” White said of his pitcher. “We’ve just got to come out of this with our heads up.”
Moran, the director and co-founder of the tournament, was upset about.
“It was poor fundamental baseball. We ran with our head where the sun don’t shine,” Moran said.
Fike left several runners stranded and couldn’t capitalize on three errors by the Skyhawks.
“We’re 0-2 now – we can’t win the division, we can’t win the tournament,” Moran said. “But coming out of this 2-2 doesn’t sound too bad.”