The Trenton Bulldogs fought tooth and nail, but came up three wins short of pushing their winning streak to five, falling to the Kirksville Tigers on Monday afternoon 6-3. The loss drops the Bulldogs record in duals to 4-2, while pushing Kirksville to 9-1.
Trenton’s victories in singles play were from Kade Ockenfels by 8-2 final over Garrett Johnson, and Gabe Swann, an 8-4 winner over Charles Fraser. In order to get the team win, Trenton needed to find three other victories. One came from the doubles team of Wyatt Neal and Gabe Swann, who won a competitive match with Reza Hamidi and Charles Fraser of KHS, 9-7.
A close loss in singles for Trenton’s Creed Houghton, in an 8-6 decision to Hamidi, began to tip the match toward the Tigers. Kirksville’s strong #1 singles player, Ruslan Pultz beat Nick Shields 8-love, with Bennett Hoshaw downing Jacob Davis 8-2, and James Hendler beating Wyatt Neal by an identical 8-2 score.
The #1 and #2 doubles matches had some potential to go the Bulldogs way, but Kirksville took a pair of close triumphs, as Pultz and Johnson beat Shields and Davis 8-5, while Hoshaw and Hendler beat Ockenfels and Houghton 8-6.
The schools played three JV doubles matches as part of Monday’s competition, with Kirksville taking 2 of the 3. Weston Otto and Jeremy Elliott of the Bulldogs took a 6-4 victory.
