News

Legion team splits home and away doubleheaders

By Tyler Ohmann

07/09/2013

The Bottineau Legion team split a pair of doubleheaders this past week, moving their overall record to 8-7.

First on Monday Bottineau played a doubleheader with Lansford on the road.

In game one the Bottineau bats exploded in fourth and fifth innings to take 12-2 win in five innings.
Things started slow for Bottineau as neither team scored in the first three innings.

In the top of the fourth Bottineau took a lead after Brody Moum, Devin Bercier and Garrett Lynnes each scored runs by taking advantage of some wild pitches.

Parker Engelhard also scored in the inning on a single by Andrew Hill to put Bottineau up 4-0. Lansford scored once in the fourth, but Bottineau added eight more times in the fifth to get the win.

Hill had four runs batted in (RBI) on a 3-for-4 day at the plate.

Bercier earned the win on the mound after scattering three hits and striking out eight batters.
Hill is happy with what he’s been able to do at the plate thus far this season.

“It’s been going good,” Hill said. “I’ve been putting the ball in play a lot, so that’s always a plus.”

In game two things again looked good for Bottineau as they held on to a 5-3 lead entering the final inning.

However, Lansford rallied and scored three times in the final inning to split the doubleheader with a 6-5 win.

Lynnes took the loss on the mound, despite helping himself by going 2-for-2 at the plate.

Hill also clubbed two hits and scored twice in the loss.

Hill likes the team this year, but said that the team needs to keep it positive to continue to have success.

“I like the team this year a lot,” Hill said. “To keep it consistent we need to continue to keep picking people up.”

“That’s what we’re doing right now, and we need to keep doing it,” Hill added.

On Wednesday Bottineau hosted Surrey for a doubleheader.

Bottineau again had success in the first game after erasing a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the sixth inning and holding on to the 4-2 lead in the seventh.

Lee Schneider went the distance on the mound and struck out 12 to earn the win.

Hill again had success at the plate as he went 3-for-3 and reached base in all four at-bats and scored three runs.

Zach Johnson scored the eventual winning run in the sixth after advancing to second on a wild pitch and then scoring on another wild pitch.

Schneider had the lone RBI for Bottineau after scoring Hill on a groundout in the third inning.
Bottineau got the win despite committing three errors in the game. It is something that Hill believes Bottineau needs to clean up.

“Errors seem to make the games for us, win or lose,” Hill said. “I know that Cando game we made way too many errors and it showed on the scoreboard.”

“Tonight we made a few, but we battled back with the bats and that was enough to win it,” Hill added.
“It does carry on and that’s a good thing,” Hill said. “There is always that one ignition player on a team and once he gets going it carries on to other players and you start stringing together hits, stringing together plays and eventually wins ball games.”

He believes that once Bottineau gets a spark at the plate, the rest of the team follows.

Game two was all Surrey as the Blue Sox scored early and often to get a 10-0 four-inning victory.
A Hill triple was the lone hit for Bottineau as the Blue Sox jumped all over Johnson at the plate.

They found several gaps and scored twice in the first, three times in the second and added five more in the third.

Bottineau plays at home today against New Rockford to start the week, and then plays twice more on Thursday and Friday. Sections will be in Cando starting on July 24.