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A senior pitcher for La Crescent High School’s baseball team, Falk turned in a performance to remember Thursday afternoon.
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La Crescent High School's Ryan Minegar slides into Cotter's catcher Matt Wolfe to earn a run during their game Thursday at Cotter Field. The Lancers beat the Ramblers 5-1. Fred Schulze photo |
Falk baffled Cotter hitters from start to finish to lead the Lancers to a 5-1 Hiawatha Valley League victory.
The left-hander gave up one unearned run in the complete-game effort. He allowed three hits, had eight strikeouts and walked just two.
That, Falk said, was the secret to his success.
“I’ve been a little on the rough side with control, so throwing strikes was my biggest thing,” Falk said. “I slowed down a lot. I felt a lot better finding my balance point and release.”
Falk gave up a leadoff single in the first inning and did not allow another hit until the fifth inning.
By that time, La Crescent had built a 5-0 lead, the first run driven in by Falk on a double in the second that scored Ian Anderson.
The story, though, was his pitching. He struck out the side in the second and had a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. The only baserunners he allowed were via a hit batsman and an error.
“We needed an outing like that from him,” La Crescent coach Rick Boyer said. “What I really like about Patrick this year is that he really battles in the strike zone. He gets ahead of hitters and throws strikes.
“He’s had some control problems in the past, but he’s found it and is doing a great job for us.”
The Lancers (6-6, 5-4) added a run in the third thanks to a mental mistake by Cotter and scored three times in the fifth, the result of a two-out error.
La Crescent scored in the third after a potential double-play back to pitcher David Miller was botched when no one covered second base on the comebacker.
A two-out error by Cotter third baseman Tommy Mullen led to three unearned runs in the fifth, the big blow a two-run single by Brandon Verthein.
“I was a little disappointed we made so many mistakes,” said Cotter coach Mat O’Brien, whose team played error-free in Monday’s win over Zumbrota-Mazeppa. “When we play well defensively, we can be a pretty good team. We’re not good enough to give teams extra outs, which we did a few times today. They made us pay.”
Cotter’s three hits came from Any Wolfe, Mullen and Jordan Ossefoort, whose only at-bat came in the fifth after pitching one-third of an inning to get out of a jam in the top of the fifth.
The Ramblers (4-7, 3-5) scored their lone run in fifth, with Mullen coming on a wild pitch by Falk.
“I thought we had done a better job cutting down on our strikeouts, but today we had a lot,” O’Brien said. “We have to make sure we’re putting the ball in play and not giving away outs. Their kid threw OK, but just too many strikeouts overall.”
