Sloppy day costs USC

Published 1:46 pm Saturday, April 24, 2010

Sloppy weather turned into sloppy play for the United South Central baseball team Friday against Blue Earth at Thompson Park in Wells.

The Rebels committed six errors, including two in the seventh inning, as the Buccaneers rallied to beat USC 11-7.

The Rebels (5-2, 3-1 Gopher) grabbed a 7-1 lead after the second inning, but imploded in the third inning when Blue Earth tied the game.

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“It’s a frustrating way to lose baseball games like we have in the last couple of weeks with the amount of errors we have,” said USC head coach Pat Frank. “You think that’s one of your strengths coming into the year — is your defense and pitching — and they continue to let you down. It gets a little tough to deal with losses.”

Brady Anderson scored the go-ahead run in the seventh after USC failed to field a bunt and Colin Neinhaus drove in a pair of runs with a triple with one out. The Buccaneers went on to add three more runs.

Rebels pitcher Anthony Stenzel struck out the first batter he faced before allowing a single and the defense committing two errors.

USC looked like it would end the game early through the first two innings. The Rebels had eight hits in the first two innings, including a three-run triple from A.J. Dreyer, but USC managed just three hits the rest of the game.

Dreyer finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and William Huper went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. Nick Fure went 2-for-4 as well.

The Rebels had an opportunity to retake the lead in the bottom of the fourth when they loaded the bases with two outs, but took a called third strike to end the inning.

In the fifth USC put runners on first and second with one out, but took another called third strike and popped out to center field to end the inning. It was the last time the Rebels had any base runners.

Connor Hanson got the victory for Blue Earth and allowed just one hit in 2 1/3 innings and stuck out four.

The latest loss for the Rebels mirrored an earlier loss to Blooming Prairie where USC committed nine errors and lost a 6-1 lead in an 8-7 loss.

“We have a tendency to have a couple big innings and we get very complacent with what we do,” Frank said. “We just let things slide. We have a hard time putting the nail in the coffin.”

The Rebels failed to execute the routine plays during the middle innings and continued to give the Buccaneers extra opportunities. Of the 11 runs Blue Earth score, just three were earned.

“We’re not in a good situation right now just for the fact that you can’t, in two games, have 15 errors, be ahead in both games and lose them the way we did,” Frank said.

Dustin Dylla started for USC and lasted four innings. Dylla worked out of jams in the first three innings and allowed just two runs, but the Buccaneers got to him in the fourth and his defense started to fall apart.

The outfield dropped a fly ball in the first inning, which led to a run and misplayed other balls, which led to extra bases for Blue Earth.

USC plays New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Monday in Wells.

Blue Earth 11, USC 7

BEA 101 500 4 — 11 12 0

USC 250 000 0 —  7 11 6

WP—Connor Hanson 2 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

LP—Anthony Stenzel 2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K