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Smith rides to second in St. Paul Rodeo
Goodrich wins all-around title in St. Paul
Rodeo
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Abby's struggles in loss to Liberty |
The American Legion AAA baseball team gives up 16
hits Thursday in a loss |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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HILLSBORO — Frank Baumholtz could only
describe it as “just one of those days.”
His Abby’s American Legion AAA baseball team gave up 16 hits and
suffered a 20-5 loss Thursday at Liberty.
“Yeah, they had 16 hits and how many of those we should have
caught,” Baumholtz said. “I lost track the number of balls that were
hit over our head, that we misread that should go down as mental
errors, but those are never recorded in the scorebook.”
Baumholtz said the Tigers (11-12) struggled with not only windy
conditions but the fact that the sun was in the eyes of the
outfielders the entire game.
“We made excuses about the wind was blowing and that the sun was in
our eyes, but (Liberty) played in it too,” he said. “So you just
have to chalk this up to a day where we didn’t handle things very
well.”
Liberty jumped on Abby’s early. John Hawes hit a two-RBI double to
center field to give Liberty a 5-0 lead in the second inning.
The Tigers mounted a brief rally in the third. Nick Reynolds stole
home on a wild pitch before Mitchell Sturdevant hit an RBI double to
right field to pull the Tigers within 5-2.
Liberty’s Tim Cullegan responded in the bottom of the third with a
three-run home run before the Tigers used an RBI single by Emmitt
Ackerlund in the fourth to pull within 8-3.
After Liberty tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the
fourth, Abby’s Ryan Wilson scored on a wild pitch in the top of the
fifth. In the bottom of the fifth, Liberty put the game away by
scoring nine runs, highlighted by a three-RBI triple by Alec Selby.
The Tigers added their final run in the sixth when Reynolds was hit
by a pitch with the bases loaded.
“If you play long enough, you’re going to have stuff like this that
happens,” Baumholtz said. “When adversity presents itself, it just
matters how you handle it.”
Baumholtz said the Tigers were a “little complacent” on the
second-effort plays, saying players struggled in backing each other
up on plays.
“No matter what we do, whether you’re a support guy in the dugout
or you’re out in the field, you have a job to do and you have a
support job to do,” he said. “There’s always a place for you to go
and always something for you to do, even when the ball is not coming
your way.”
The Tigers seemed to be a different team than the squad that
competed last week in the Star Spangled Banner Tournament in
Corvallis. That team was sharp. On Thursday, the squad appeared lost
at times.
“It was disappointing, but stuff happens,” Baumholtz said. “It just
matters how we’re going to come back from the adversity we had
today.
“You play the game long enough and you’ll get 10-runned or you’ll
go 0-4 and have four strikeouts. You can’t be really low and beat
yourself up, but you can’t be so high when things are good, either.”
The Tigers returned to action Friday with a 6 p.m. game at
Centennial in a three-day wood bat tournament that concludes Sunday.
Results were unavailable as of press time. |
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From
July 7, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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