L-S rallies to win at home
By CRAIG MURPHY NDN Sports Writer
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| Lynnville-Sully’s Nick Beyer chops down the game-winning single Monday evening against Tri-County. The Hawks won 6-5 after being down 5-0 in the third inning. Craig Murphy/Daily News |
SULLY — It was just three innings into Monday evening’s game, and Lynnville-Sully baseball coach Nick Harder was already thinking about the rest of the long week ahead.
The way Monday’s South Iowa Cedar League game against Tri-County was going, it was hard to blame the Hawk skipper as the week seemed to be getting longer by the minute.
Thanks to three key errors, L-S fell behind 1-0 after one inning, 4-0 after two and 5-0 after three.
“We just didn’t come to play in the first two innings,” Harder groaned. “It was simple things, just playing catch. Our guys weren’t ready to play.”
First baseman Nick Beyer didn’t find much to disagree with in that.
“We were playing sloppy,” Beyer said. “There was a fly ball that was dropped and just some sloppy throws.”
And so after L-S pitcher Danny Zegers got a strikeout to end the top of the third inning, Harder gave his team a choice: show in the next two innings they were ready to play or not.
“That seemed to get the job done,” Harder said with a sly grin.
The bottom of the fifth showed the Hawks were ready to do some business. L-S mounted a rally that ultimately resulted in a 6-5 win in eight innings.
The rally started in the fifth. Bryce Doane drew a walk and advanced to second on a single by Josh Van Wyk. Both runners scored as Beyer launched a double to cut the gap to 5-2.
“I struck out the time before on three straight curveballs,” Beyer noted. “Coach said to hang on to one. That time up, the first pitch was a curveball. I decided to follow coach’s advice. It was my best hit of the year.”
Beyer later scored on a single by Kenton Dunsenbergen, making it 5-3.
“A lot of times we just have trouble getting started,” Beyer said.
Harder said the fifth inning hits were huge, in more ways than one.
“The energy level started to pick up,” he said. “All season Nick’s been a tough out at the plate for me. His first two at-bats, his feet weren’t set solid. When he got that double, it not only lit a fire under this team but also the confidence and momentum switched to our dugout.
“They weren’t going to let this one get away.”
The Trojans had runners on second and third with one out in the top of the sixth, but Zegers got out of the jam with a strikeout and by forcing a grounder.
In the bottom of the sixth, Zegers got on base with a fielder’s choice and eventually scored on a single by Kyle Soderblom to make it 5-4. Soderblom ended up scoring on a single by Doane to tie the game.
“Bryce Doane has struggled a bit,” Harder said. “But at the Pella Christian Tournament this weekend, he came in and had a crucial RBI. Then today he tied the game up. His improvement from last year is unbelievable.”
In the bottom of the seventh, the Hawks appeared ready to close the deal with runners on second and third with one out. The final two batters both struck out, however, forcing the game to extra innings.
“In hindsight, maybe I should have tried to squeeze one run in instead of putting so much pressure on the batters,” Harder lamented.
Soderblom led off the bottom of the eighth by drawing a walk in four pitches. The next pitch hit Doane in the back. With one out, Beyer stepped to the plate and chopped down a high 1-2 pitch to left field, scoring the game-winning run in Soderblom.
L-S improved to 8-9 overall and 6-6 in conference play.
“Coach gave me the bunt sign during that at-bat, and I messed up,” Beyer said. “I fouled a couple off, then got a high fast ball. I was just trying to foul pitches off, and ended up hitting the gap in left.”
Harder was somewhat worried when Beyer fell behind 0-2 on the count.
“His at-bat was real timely,” the coach said. “He was just trying to stay alive. He was trying not to strike out. I tell the guys, good things happen when the ball is in play.”
Harder believes Monday’s win could pay dividends down the road.
“In a ball game when they do fall behind and they’re playing good, they will know from tonight’s game that they are only a couple of hits away from being back in it,” he said.
L-S is on the road tonight against Iowa Valley, and tomorrow against HLV.
• The Hawks got practice at coming from behind last Saturday in the Pella Christian tournament. The Hawks came back late to beat Bondurant-Farrar, 13-12, then fell to Pella Christian, 5-3, in the title game.
Scoring by innings R H E
T-C 131 000 00 — 5 7 3
L-S 000 032 01 — 6 10 3
L-S hitting
Nick Beyer 3-5 (3 RBI, run), Josh Van Wyk 2-4 (run), Kyle Soderblom 1-2 (2 runs, RBI), Bryce Doane 1-2 (RBI, run), Kenton Dunsenbergen 1-3 (RBI), Dallas Bryan 1-3, Zach Stafford 1-3, Danny Zegers 0-4 (run).
L-S pitching
Danny Zegers, W, (8IP, 5R, 1ER, 7H, 5K, 4BB).
