By TIM HYDEN, CJ Correspondent
Somerset — Friday night was a beautiful night for baseball on the Reservation as Southwestern hosted the Lakers of Russell County. And the Warriors responded by playing six beautiful innings of baseball — completely shutting down their opponents and methodically manufacturing runs while playing nearly flawless baseball.
Unfortunately, the game was seven innings long.
That has been bad news for the Warriors this season, as well as for the teams trying to contain late-inning Laker comebacks. They had already stormed back from nowhere to beat Somerset once this year. Friday they victimized the Warriors with four runs on four hits in the seventh for a come-from-behind 4-3 win.
“To be perfectly honest with you, I’m not terribly disappointed in anything we did out there tonight,” said Southwestern Head Coach Rodney McAninch. “I thought we played good baseball for the most part. We just have to find a way to nail down a win late in the game. That’s about the fifth time this has happened to us this year.”
For Southwestern, it was another narrow loss. In their six losses this season the Warriors have only been outscored by nine runs. For Russell County, it was a reprise of their effort against Somerset in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.—where they scored nine late runs to storm from behind and win 11-7.
“They’re a good baseball team,” said McAninch. “They don’t quit, and late in the game they find a way to get on base. That’s what a good team does. They keep going for it until the last out.”
One could scarcely believe the Lakers had that kind of a rally in them after the way Dustin Hughes dominated them for the first six innings. The Lakers did not get their first base runner until leadoff man Hunter Best singled to start the fourth. But he was erased on an inning ending double play. Their second runner came on a Taylor Hutchinson single with one out in the sixth. That started a rally thanks to an infield error. But Hughes coaxed a ground out from DH Tyler Robertson to end the inning and preserve the shutout.
Meanwhile, the Warriors, though not battering the Lakers’ Hunter Best, were able to manufacture three runs against him. In the second Isaac Claywell was hit with a Best pitch to start the inning. After a one-out single by Ryan Ray, Alex Jones came through with a big two-out RBI to score Claywell with the game’s first run. In the third inning Logan Starnes led off with a single, and scored on a two-out single by Zach Fowler to make it 2-0. Then in the bottom of the fifth, Tyler Johnson reached on a one-out single and scored on another two-out hit by Fowler.
Six innings of great pitching, solid defense, and clutch two-out hitting. So what could possibly go wrong?
What went wrong was that Russell County started hitting the ball where there were no defenders. Pure and simple.
Bryson McFall began by turning on a pitch and doubling down the left field line to start the seventh. Hughes followed that by allowing his only walk of the game to Jared Coffey. Then catcher Dillon Downey laced a double that put the Lakers on the board and moved runners to second and third with no one out. Just like that, it all turned on a dime.
McAninch brought in fireballer Zach Fowler with the tying runs in scoring position and nobody out. It didn’t stay that way for long. Zach Carney drilled Fowler’s opening fastball to the opposite field, scoring both runners to tie the game. One out later Hutchinson picked up his second hit to drive in the go ahead run.
“I actually thought Zach threw the ball well when he came in,” said McAninch. “He may have got a ball up a little bit, but overall I thought he looked good.”
With one chance left, the Warriors could not muster a rally. A strikeout and a pair of fly outs ended a once promising evening on a sour note, as Russell County completed the come-from-behind 4-3 win. In trying to explain his impressions of the game, McAninch had to balance the satisfaction of the first six innings with the inexplicable turn-around of the seventh inning.
“You know, nobody wants to lose a ball game,” said McAninch. “And these kids might get a little discouraged. But what can you say except ‘this is just baseball. It’s a funny game sometimes’. You can do everything right, and keep doing it the same way and it just doesn’t turn out the way you want every time. And you have to give Russell County a lot of credit. There’s a reason they do this over and over. They keep battling until the last out. That’s something we need to learn from and find a way to start nailing down these games we’re letting slip away.
“Individually I thought Dustin Hughes pitched another solid game for us like he has all year. And Zach Fowler looked good when he came in, as well as coming up with some big hits for us. I was also proud of the way Bradley Logsdon stepped in for Aaron Hampton and played like he belonged out there.”
Hampton, a key performer and relief pitcher, broke the tip of his finger on his throwing hand in the Warriors’ last game and was unable to play and contribute in spots where he would normally be relied upon. His future availability is uncertain at this point.
“In the big scheme of things, you just hope a loss like this works toward building the kids’ character in some way,” said McAninch. “We’ll see as the season unfolds.”
The loss drops Southwestern to 10-6 on the season, while the Lakers go to 12-3. The Warriors will be at home against the Lincoln County Patriots on Monday.
RC 000 000 4 —4 6 0
SW 011 010 0 — 3 6 2
Russell Co.— 2B—McFall, Downey
RBI—Carney 2, Downey, Hutchinson
H. Best 7 IP, 3 ER, 3 R, 6 H, 5 K, 3 BB, 1 HBP
Southwestern— RBI—Fowler 2, Jones
Hughes 6+ IP, 3 ER, 3 R, 4 H, 4 K, 1 BB
Fowler 1 IP, 0 ER, 1R, 2 H, 1 K, 0 BB.
