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Versailles
right hander Zach Niekamp delivers a pitch Thursday against
Miami East. The
Tigers lost a tough one, 5-1 to the Vikings. CNO Photo
by Chuck Ronner
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Versailles
loses tough battle
Miami East gets late rally
By George Starks
VERSAILLES- With four innings in the book, Versailles held a slim one
run lead and with the way Zach Niekamp was pitching, it looked as if
the 1-0 lead might hold up.
That wasn’t the case.
Miami East put two runs on the board in the sixth and three more an
inning later with a bases loaded triple, to drop a 5-1 loss on
Versailles Thursday.
“Six outs is a lot of outs if you’re going to make one run stand up,”
said Versaills coach Mitch Hoying. “It’s early in the year and it’s
going to be bullpen games for us. A lot of things happened out there
and things just didn’t go our way today. When it got late into the
game, we faced a little bit of adversity and we didn’t respond the way
I think we will down the stretch.”
Down 2-1 going into the bottom of the sixth, Ethan Bruns got the inning
started off with a double, putting the Tigers is a position to gain a
tie.
“You’re right where you want to be,” said Hoying. “A lead-off double
and we have two, three and four hitting and they are our three to four
top hitters. It just didn’t go our way. We need to get good at
shrinking the strike zone and realizing what they can hit and laying
off the stuff we can’t hit when it’s early in the count and adjust to
it. We will get there but we’re not there yet.”
With the tie run being stranded at second as the sixth ended, the
Tigers hope was simple. Hold the Vikings in the seventh and hope for a
spark in their last at bat.
A couple of walks and a bases loaded situation only spelled doom for
Vrsailles.
“That trible was a daggar for us,” said Hoying. “It was the walks that
preceeded it that hurt us and paved the way for that triple. Miami East
is a good team and we are looking forward to getting another shot at
them in the tournament.”
Versailles, 1-1, will play two today at Graham starting at 11 a.m.
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