Amateur Baseball: Aces lose lead late again

The hits finally came for Red Wing, however, old problems resurfaced Sunday in a 5-4 loss to Hastings at Red Wing Athletic Field.

The Aces (10-12, 0-7 Section 1B) experienced another late-inning implosion as they surrendered five runs in the final two innings to lose their second consecutive game. Prior to Sunday’s game Red Wing had gone 5-2 in its last seven games.

“I think we got a bad hop here and there,” Aces catcher and co-manager Jimmy Bohmbach said. “We just kind of fell apart. I think we’re starting to get that scared feeling in the late innings if it’s a close game. We really gotta get over that.”

Red Wing made three errors and had three walks in the last two innings and the errors led to three unearned runs.

Things got started for the Hawks with Aaron Stoneberg reaching on an error in the eighth inning. Tyler Rohr followed with a single and an error allowed Stoneberg to score the first run of the game for Hastings. Jordy Horsch singled to score Rohr and make it a 4-2 game.

In the ninth, with two outs, the next six hitters reached base for the Hawks, who sent nine batters to the plate. Stoneberg cut the lead to 4-3 and Rohr tied it with two consecutive bases-loaded walks. The go-ahead run came around to score on an error.

“We took advantage of the times we had guys on base,” Hastings player-manager Deryk Marks said. “We didn’t have anything before the seventh inning. We got a couple of guys on and then we put pressure on them, hit the ball on the ground and they made a couple of errors and we used it to our advantage.”

The Aces had a 4-0 lead entering the eighth inning and got its bats going. Red Wing finished with 10 hits with Boldt going 3-for-5 with two RBI. Adam Thygesen, Josh Thygesen and Jake Laffey all went 2-for-4. Josh Thygesen and Laffey each scored a run.

The Aces scored single runs in the first and second innings and added two more in the fourth.

“We’ve scored runs early in games and we kind of shut it off after that and it happened again,” Bohmbach said.

The Hawks (12-10, 6-0 Section 1B) had just six hits in the game and didn’t get its first hit until the fifth inning off Red Wing starter Aaron Johnson. Johnson threw 7 2/3 effective innings and allowed just two runs on four hits. Johnson struck out three and gave up just two hits until the eighth inning.

“We just can’t close out a game,” Aces pitcher and co-manager Andy Gibart said. “We’re finding ways to do it in some of our non-league games. I don’t know what it is about our section games if we get nervous at the end of games but we just cannot close out a game. It’s embarrassing right now.”

Boldt came on in relief of Johnson in the eighth and retired the first batter he faced on one pitch, but struggled in the ninth. Boldt walked three hitters and gave up three hits.

“Steve’s going to shut the door nine out of 10 times and just couldn’t do it today,” Gibart said. “He’s our closer and that happens sometimes.”

Red Wing faces Miesville, who earlier in the season rallied from a 6-0 deficit through the first seven innings to win 8-6 with an eight-run eighth, Wednesday in Miesville.

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