Sports
Post 42 weathers wet week
Matthew Semisch
07/15/2014
It sounds like a broken record, but the North Dakota weather provided headaches for our area’s baseball players last week.
The Bottineau Post 42 American Legion baseball team expected to be busy last week. Two home games were on the docket, as were four away from Bottineau.
The road games went off without a hitch. The games at home, not so much.
The penultimate full week of the regular season began Monday, July 7 at home against Velva. The game nearly didn’t go ahead, though, as a fast-moving storm that dumped plenty of rain and pea-sized hail in places earlier in the afternoon threatened the event.
Bottineau coaches and players worked hard to make the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) ballpark playable. In the end, only a 45-minute delay was needed before the game got underway.
Parker Engelhard, Lee Schneider and Brody Moum all scored in the bottom of the first inning to give the hosts a 3-0 lead.
Things stayed that way until the top of the fourth inning when Velva scored four runs to take its first lead of the day. Austin Kittleson tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning, but the visitors then scored another four runs in the top of the sixth and held on for an 8-4 win.
Velva left four runners stranded in the first two innings. However, Bottineau head coach Derek Aus felt that his team helped the visitors out too often.
“Velva has good hitters with good approaches,” Aus said, “And you can’t just keep giving them opportunities, and we gave Velva too many bases with base hits and walks.
“They never really had to completely set themselves up offensively because we helped them too much there.”
The next afternoon in Makoti, Post 42 got back on track. Bottineau won both games of a doubleheader that day, downing the hosts 11-7 in Game 1 before picking up an 11-1 win in the rematch.
The opening game of the twin bill saw Bottineau have to come from behind to win. Makoti led 7-5 after five complete innings, but eight unanswered Bottineau runs over the final two innings turned the scoreline on its head.
“I was really proud of the way we battled back in the final two innings,” Aus said. “I think it’s important that our guys remember that they can rally for runs in any inning.”
Post 42 batted around its lineup in the first inning of Game 2 while opening up a 7-0 lead. Bottineau batted around again in the second inning and added four more runs to the board.
Makoti was unable to make its scoring opportunities in the shortened game count, and the hosts’ only run came in the second inning.
Bottineau was then scheduled to play host to Washburn on Friday afternoon. Heavy showers Thursday night into Friday morning, however, made the Lumberyard unplayable.
That meeting with Washburn was itself supposed to be a make-up game. Post 42 hosted Washburn on June 13 for a scheduled doubleheader, but the second game that day was called off due to darkness.
Bottineau ended its still quite busy week Saturday on the road at Beulah. Post 42 picked up a split there, winning the first game by a 15-1 count before dropping an 8-6 decision in the rematch.
Andrew Hill, Casey Tooke, Kellen Lagerquist and Jesse Heil all scored in the bottom of the second inning of Game 1 to put the visitors ahead 4-0.
Post 42 arguably got better as the game went on. Schneider and Wolf Don Thorson pushed Bottineau’s lead to 6-0 in the fourth inning.
Things later got even better for the visitors, which picked up another three runs in the fifth frame and another six in the sixth.
Beulah’s batters had no answer for Bottineau pitcher Hill, who recorded 11 strikeouts in Game 1.
“Beulah’s game is to outhit you, and Andrew Hill really shut them down on the mound,” Aus said of the Minnesota State-Fergus Falls recruit. “He’s smart, he mixes pitches, doesn’t walk hitters, and we always defend well behind him.
“It was great to see him locate his pitches like that. He really controlled the game.”
Bottineau jumped out to a 4-1 lead through the first two innings of Game 2. Three Beulah runs in both the fifth and sixth innings, though, and one more in the seventh handed Post 42 its first loss in four games.
“We were in a good spot in Game 2 also, up 4-1,” Aus said, “(But) we just lived a little two close to the edge.
“We escaped jams the first couple of innings, but eventually it caught up to us, and they got some big hits to come back.”
With its three wins and two losses last week, Bottineau’s record improved to 12-5.
Bottineau hosts both Makoti and Washburn on Wednesday before visiting Surrey on Thursday afternoon. After that is Post 42’s regular season finale Monday at New Rockford.