The Brookings Register
The Brookings Bobcats dropped both ends of a doubleheader as they lost to O’Gorman by scores of 11-4 and 5-4 at Bob Shelden Field on Tuesday evening.
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BROOKINGS — The Brookings Bobcats dropped both ends of a doubleheader as they lost to O’Gorman by scores of 11-4 and 5-4 at Bob Shelden Field on Tuesday evening.
The losses came in the home stretch of the Bobcats’ spring schedule as they fell to 11-12 ahead of their final doubleheader of the regular season against Mitchell beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
“We have three days of practice this week before Mitchell and then we have a full week off where we can get a lot of reps in ahead of the playoffs,” Brookings head coach Carter Roach said. “I think we just have to give our hitters a little more confidence in the box because our hitting in general is kind of where we are really struggling.”
The Bobcats’ offense clicked early when Nolan Miles reached on an error and Owen Schneider drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the first inning. Miles scored on a double steal in the following at-bat and Schneider scored on Addison Ronning’s single that made it a 2-0 game.
Tane Friedrich drew a walk and David Brink singled to load the bases and Tyson Antonen drew a bases-loaded walk to cap a three-run inning. But O’Gorman regrouped to take the lead as Hunter Den Boer stole home, a run scored on a fielder’s choice and Zach Sprenkle doubled to tie the game in the bottom of the second inning.
The Knights took the lead two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Charlie Huerners and O’Gorman extended its lead on an RBI double from Brogan Moffitt and a run scoring on an error to take a 6-3 lead in the top of the third inning.
Sully Schlimgen drove in a run with a triple and Den Boer made it an 8-3 game in the top of the fourth inning and Den Boer smashed a solo home run to put the Knights up 9-3 in the top of the sixth inning.
Austin Clark drove in a run with a ground out in the bottom of the sixth inning and the Knights added two more runs with RBI doubles from Hueners and Den Boer in the top of the seventh inning.
Breck Wilson took the loss for Brookings, allowing eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits and six walks with a strikeout over 3.2 innings. Ryan Lockrem pitched the final 3.1 innings allowing three earned runs on six hits and three walks with three strikeouts.
Brink went 2-for-2 with a walk and a run scored. Ronning went 1-for-2 with a run scored, a walk and an RBI. Schneider walked twice and scored a run. Antonen drew a walk with an RBI and Jase Bauer drew a walk in two at-bats.
The Knights took an early advantage in the second game of the night, using a RBI single by Den Boer, a sacrifice fly by Z Dunham and a run scored on a wild pitch to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
The Bobcats chipped into the lead with two runs scoring on an error in the bottom of the first inning but O’Gorman got a run back on an RBI single by Trenton Fischer. The Bobcats kept battling back, however, following a lead off double by Brink in the bottom of the fourth inning with an RBI single from Schneider, who later scored on an error to tie the game at 4-4.
The game remained tied until the top of the seventh inning when Den Boer reached on an error. Dunham grounded out to Brink in the next at-bat but Den Boer advanced to third base on the play, which allowed him to score on Moffit’s RBI single.
While the Bobcats were able to fight back, they couldn’t come up with the game-tying run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“I’m proud of us bouncing back after a Game 1 that didn’t really go as we scripted it,” Roach said. “It was big for us to bounce back and we can at least take some positives out of this showing.”
Brink started and allowed four earned runs on six hits and five walks with six strikeouts over six innings while Conrad allowed an unearned run with a hit and a strikeout in the seventh.
Brink went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored at the plate while Schneider went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
With two games left on the regular season schedule, Roach believes the goal is to refine some areas in Saturday’s doubleheader with the Kernels and prepare for the state playoffs.
“It’s our last two regular season games, so we’re just getting to the point where we can finally fine tune some areas to get everything locked in for the playoffs.”
