From time to time it is how you start out as an alternative of how you finish.
Oak Grove Submit 379 figured out that lesson the difficult way on Friday dropping a pair of game titles in the remaining day of pool play in the American Legion Wooden Bat Invitational held at Concealed Valley Park.
In the opening game, a late rally came up brief in a 3-2 decline to Lincoln (Neb.) Judds Brothers Construction in a match that made the decision the champion in pool D.
Judds Brothers scored all a few operates in the initial inning and then held off a late charge by Oak Grove in the last inning to clinch the title with a 4- pool engage in mark and earn a berth into Saturday’s quarterfinals.
Oak Grove yielded 6 early runs and couldn’t get better in the next game of the working day, falling 11-2 to the Omaha (Neb.) Submit 211 PDG Storm.
Just after a 2- commence to the event, the two straight losses meant Oak Grove (17-8-1) fell into the consolation portion of the bracket and will await to see who it plays in the crossover part of the event Saturday (pending the weather conditions).
In the 3-2 loss to Judds Brothers, a trio of free of charge passes to open up the top rated of the very first inning grew to become the downfall for Oak Grove.
Judds Brothers’ initially two batters reached on an error and then a strike batter loaded the bases. That established the stage for Cody Bruss – ranked No. 10 in the state of Nebraska for 2022 recruits by Prep Baseball Report – to hit a two-operate double.
Dakota State signee Logan Hunt followed with an RBI single up the center.
“We played one of our greater games all yr and we stunk it up in the incredibly initial inning, sad to say,” Oak Grove mentor Jeff Wright explained. “A couple faults and we are down. We competed and we did a excellent job of preserving our composure.”
Oak Grove received a operate back in the base of the initial, using edge of an error and a wild pitch. Haiden Armstrong and afterwards scored on an error on a sacrifice fly that sophisticated him to third. Dalton Chaney later on scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-2, but Judds Brothers escaped the inning with the direct.
Oak Grove had probabilities but failed to capitalize on scoring likelihood in many innings, which include the 2nd and fourth.
A leadoff solitary in the sixth inning was erased on a pickoff at initial foundation. Brody Armstrong singled and Dalton Chaney walked to give Oak Grove the tying operate at 2nd foundation, but a ground out and fly ball ended the scoring menace.
“We experienced possibilities and runners in scoring positions,” Wright stated. “We experienced some baserunning blunders. I disagreed a little little bit with a single of the non-balk phone calls that got a single of our guys, but that is just one. We produced sufficient baserunning faults that we cannot level to 1 blunder.”
Oak Grove experienced one particular additional possibility against Judds Brothers in the bottom of the seventh. Mason Freece had a 1-out one and then his courtesy runner, Shayton Wright, swiped 2nd foundation.
Cody Cunningham hit a pop fly that fell into middle subject, but it was so shallow that Wright stayed at second base.
Max Roberts then got a line out and his next strikeout in the inning to report the preserve. The line out was a important enjoy in Jeff Wright’s eyes.
“The suitable fielder, he experienced to have caught it just in the idea of the webbing,” he claimed. “Three inches higher and not only is our runner on 2nd scoring to tie the game, our runner on first likely scores from to start with to win the game. It’s a game of inches – the common video game of inches.”
In the 11-2 decline, the Omaha Storm scored grabbed a major early guide, scoring two runs in the initial inning and 4 in each and every of the second and fourth for a 10-2 advantage.
“This recreation was a bit of a hangover from the to start with match, but actually that was the finest staff we observed in our pool, by significantly,” Wright stated. “They strike the ball properly and their pitcher, he threw 95 pitches in 4 innings. That doesn’t come about, and if it takes place you are putting up a bunch of runs and he is out there to just take one for the staff sort of matter. You really don’t normally have a male throwing 95 pitches and we have a person or two hits. We produced some noise we just didn’t strike the ball.”
Following an inning, Put up 379 faced only a just one operate deficit, 2-1, but then struggled to retain the PDG Storm at bay.
Haiden Armstrong opened the base of the initial inning with a stroll and went to 3rd base on a solitary by Brody Armstrong. Dalton Chaney strike a ground ball to 2nd base that scored Haiden Armstrong.
That was the closest Oak Grove came to tying the activity.
The final run for Oak Grove arrived in the 3rd. Wright and Brody Armstrong walked and Dalton Chaney attained on an mistake. On the exact participate in, the Storm shortstop produced a throwing error hoping to get Shayton Wright at 3rd foundation, and Wright scored conveniently.
Armstrong and Chaney each individual moved up a base but have been each remaining stranded in scoring place when Canton Diedrich acquired a strikeout. The appropriate-hander threw 95 pitches in 4 innings but gave up only 3 hits and two runs (one acquired) and mixed in 6 walks to go with 8 strikeouts.
“Reality of the circumstance is if you get just one strike or two hits, you won’t get any games. That was definitely the tale of the sport,” Wright mentioned.