Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Monday, April 28, 2008
Byron scores four runs in top of frame, Ramblers can’t recover
 Cotter catcher Matt Wolfe is unable to catch a high throw as Byron's Angel Talamantes slides safely into home plate during the Ramblers' Hiawatha Valley League game Friday in Winona. (Photo by Andrew Link/Winona Daily News) |
Byron High School’s baseball team didn’t need a rally this time. Cotter, meanwhile, again fell back on troubling early-season habits.
Byron scored four runs with two outs in the top of the first inning, capped by a Neeko Felton three-run home run, and the Bears held off Cotter 7-4 Friday at Cotter Field.
It was the second matchup in four days and second game in a row between the Hiawatha Valley League opponents. Cotter escaped a late Byron rally for a 7-6 road win Tuesday.
“We definitely wanted to come back off a loss and beat these guys,” Felton said. “We’re playing average right now, and last year was probably the worst year ever. We needed a win like this to get a boost.”
Felton’s three-run home run high off the scoreboard in left field staked the Bears (3-5, 2-4) to a 4-0 lead and Cotter never caught up. Byron tacked on two more runs in the second for a 6-1 lead.
The Bears’ momentum-grabbing, first-inning rally was of a similar vein as a handful of other difficult defeats for the Ramblers (3-5, 2-4).
The Bears strung together a two-out rally after Ramblers starter Jordon Ossefoort induced a 4-6-3 double play to clear the bases.
Ossefoort walked the next two batters, followed by an RBI single from Andrew Brooks and Felton’s blast — his first of the season.
“We’ve had some difficulties this year getting that third out,” Cotter coach Mat O’Brien said. “We walked a couple guys and got ourselves in trouble. Like I told Jordon, the problem wasn’t necessarily the home run, it was the two walks before it.”
Of the five Byron batters who drew walks, four went on to score, including a perfect 4-for-4 off Ossefoort.
“It seems like we get two outs really quick and then we give up a walk or something like that,” Cotter catcher Matt Wolfe said.
Cotter put together touch-and-go rallies throughout the game, but never fully swung the momentum.
David Miller pulled Cotter within 6-2 with a solo home run in the fourth, sending the first pitch he saw on a line over the left field fence.
The Ramblers put together four consecutive hits with one out in the fifth, including RBI singles from Wolfe and Joe Coron, but wound up stranding runners on second and third.
“I guess we haven’t really gotten the big hit when we needed it,” Wolfe said. “We’re pretty close, we just have to work out some things. Defensively we’ve been picking it up the past few games, pitching has been good all year, really.”
The Ramblers stranded runners in every inning but the second and left a total of 10 runners on base.
O’Brien was frank in discussing the Ramblers’ mental toughness. Playing conditions have been largely unfavorable — Friday was frigid and windy — and the Ramblers have come up short in a number of big spots.
“Conditions and all that stuff are the same for everybody,” O’Brien said. “I think honestly we need to be a little tougher about all those things. You can find a million excuses of why things aren’t going right, but we have to find a way to figure it out and get it done.”
Wolfe went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI, Miller went 2-for-3 with a home run and an RBI and Thomas O’Brien went 1-for-4 with a double, run and an RBI for Cotter.
Josh Tsai worked three one-hit innings in relief of Ossefoort and struck out four.
Brooks went 2-for-4 with a double, run and two RBIs, and Felton finished 1-for-4 with his three-run shot to lead Byron.
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