Another 7th inning blunder

Yesterday we traveled down to Bismarck to play against U-Mary JV team to get the rust out before conference play on 4/2.  We knew we could match up well against the Marauders, as long as we played our game.  Being the first time playing on the field, I thought it would take an inning for us to settle in and get comfortable.  Also, we haven’t had too many practices with spring and Easter breaks, so I knew there could be some mistakes early on that we may need to make up for later in the game.

Game 1
The first game started off really well with Kody Lane hitting a triple and eventually scoring by Madrid’s single to give us the lead.  The Marauders got one of their own in the first as well to tie it up.  In the second we were scoreless and Mary got two to give them the lead 1-3.  In the fourth and fifth inning, we scored two runs in both innings to give us the lead 5-3.  Simmons and Cottingham were the ones to score in the fourth off of Engebretson and Lane’s hits.  In the fifth, Madrid and Simmons were the ones to score off of Simmons and Cottingham’s hits.  In the sixth, both us and Mary scored, but we still had the lead at 6-4.  In the seventh, we were scoreless, and on defense our wheels completely fell off with some Marauder hits.  We put Choy in to pitch to give them a different look, and to an extent, it worked.  Mary had some blooper hits to some of our guys, and we weren’t fast enough to get to the ball and make the play.  Other times, the ball were dropped right over the middle infield’s heads.  When I say the wheels fell off, I literally mean a wheel fell off.  At one point, Engebretson was about to field a routine fly ball, and when he took a step back to shoot for home, his shoe fell off causing him to drop the ball.  With all of the craziness happening in the bottom of the seventh, we lost the game with a score of 6-7.  Choy received the loss for pitching.

Game 2
The second game, we were a little down on ourselves, but the guys wanted to get revenge after having that one bad inning.  We started off the first inning scoring two with a single by Madrid, scoring Lane.  Madrid was also to score from an error by the Marauders giving us the lead 2-0.  Mary was to tack on two of their own to tie it up at two apiece.   That was the last time we would score.  U-Mary played a solid rest of the game with good pitching.  We would eventually lose the game 2-9.  A few of the guys had quality at bats, but couldn’t get them in to score.  We had another bad inning to where the guys got down on themselves and were unable to get out of that rut. 

These games are made to help us improve and show the guys what they are capable of.  The last six preseason games have shown us that we are most definitely able to compete, but have to be able to put the dagger in and finish the game.  We will now host Williston (weather pending) on Saturday April 2 at 1 & 3 pm.  Come out to the Lumberyard and see some excitement!

Opening Weekend in MT

Sorry for the late post, but I couldn’t find the password for the blogs! 

The Lumberjacks opened their season in Glendive, MT and played against both Dawson CC and Williston State.  This was the first time the team had been outside since November, so we knew there would be some mistakes.  Going into the 1^st game vs Dawson, we were wanting to get the rust, cobwebs, and jitters out of our system. It was nice being in “baseball weather” for the 1^st time, but with the heat hanging around in the 70’s, I was curious to how we would adapt to it after being in the WOODSHED for a few months.

Game 1 vs DCC
The first game against DCC we came out a little sluggish and got behind 0-3 in the first inning.  We are a team that plays better when trailing a few points, so I knew we still had a chance.  We were still in it going into the 3^rd, but a few timely hits by the Bucs spread their lead to 5, and our guys were getting a little tired.  The 5^th and 6^th innings we tried to get something rolling, but couldn’t and lost 0-10.

Game 2 vs WSC
The second game of the day was against Williston, and with the 1^st game jitters out of us, I knew we were going to put up a fight.  We were the home team, so if it came down to it, we had the advantage of having the last at bat.  The first inning didn’t play out too well for us as we got behind right away 0-2.  In the second, they tacked on 2 more before we started to get the sticks rolling by adding 3 of our own.  We matched run for run with the Tetons until the 6^th, when we tied it up at 7 a piece.  Going into the last inning, they managed to squeak out a run with us still getting a chance to bat.  We were towards the bottom of the order, and needed one of our guys to step up and get the bats going.  The Tetons ended up going 3 up 3 down for us to end the game 7-8.  The guys played well, but couldn’t quite finish it off.  This was a good test to have, especially in the 2^nd game of the year to help us prepare for another close one.  Credit to the Tetons for playing a solid game throughout, but with us leaving 15 guys on base, the game could have had a much different outcome.

Game 3 vs DCC
New day, same opponent, and we knew we had to get at least one against these guys.  We knew they would try to throw a different pitcher against us, so if we hopped out on them early we could put them away.  The game was a solid game being tied at 0 until the bottom of the 3^rd when they took the lead 0-1.  Again, being a team that likes to be opportunistic and attack from behind when the time is right; we knew we just had to wait.  That time came in the top of the 7^th, we were down 2-5, and we took full advantage of a few of their errors.  We tacked on 3 runs to tie it up, and the energy was on our side.  The only thing that was going against us was the time. (In these round robin games, there is a strict time limit to make sure every game can be played.  We were at that time limit of 2 hours, so this game would either result in us tying, or losing; so we need to at least get the tie.) 
    Scheffer was on the bump to close the game, and he was pitching extremely well.  He got himself in a little bind and allowed a man on.  The runner ended up being on 3^rd with 2 outs, so we needed to focus on getting the batter out.  Scheffer had 2 strikes on the guy, when a wild pitch came about and allowed the runner to score, ending the game 5-6.  The guys didn’t like winning on a play like that, but it showed we could compete in tight games and know how to get out of them.

Game 4 vs WSC
This was the last game of the 4 game series, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out.  We had to shuffle guys around the last game to help save some arms, so I was unsure of how we would play.  Also, the temperature had been in the mid 70’s, and you could see how drained our guys were.  Not to mention, the last game went down to the wire and the guys put forth a lot of mental energy in it as well.  With that being said, the Tetons jumped to an early 0-4 lead and they kept piling them on.  We were gassed and the Tetons took full advantage of it.  We committed 3 errors and left 11 on base.  We allowed 8 runs off of only 6 hits, so there is some building to do.

We will now travel to Bismarck to play against U-Mary JV on March 29^th.  That will be our last pre-season game before we start conference play on April 2 against Williston.