Bears win slugfest against Wave

By JED LOCKETT
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

May 14, 2008 11:23 pm

— BASTIAN, Va. — The Bland County Bears overcame an 11-run inning with an abundance of offense of their own and pitching by Cody Blessing to beat Narrows 19-13 at Skip Dillow Memorial Field Wednesday evening.
“It was a wild game, back-and-forth,” said Bland County head coach Mike Miller. “They never got down. They came back and we turned around and did the same thing.”
“We scored 11 in one inning and never scored again,” said Narrows head coach Bryan Patteson. “They ended up with 19. I think they’re a good team. They hit the ball hard. We did about the same but I think we had a lot more errors than they did.”
The Green Wave’s 11-run outburst came in the third inning. They got those 11 runs on seven hits and were aided by four walks and a Bland error. They also chased Bears starter Dakotah Crouse after he gave up 10 of the 11 runs in the frame.
John Martin had a bases-clearing double to left-center field, Josh Collins added a two-RBI single and Tyler Wilson contributed a two-RBI triple in the inning to put the Wave up 11-7.
But Bland refused to quit. After plating two runs in the fourth they exploded in the fifth for their second seven-run inning of the game. Eric Harless and Jacob Mercer led the charge back as each of them knocked in a pair of runs with a single.
“They just did a good job,” Miller said. “They were patient. When they got their pitch they hit it. And then we strung together a couple hits there.”
Blessing threw the final 4 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on four hits with a strikeout and four walks to get the win. Because of him the Wave could not answer the Bears’ on the scoreboard until the final inning.
“I think they made a lot more plays,” Patteson said. “They didn’t have the errors and stuff and I don’t think we were hitting as hard of shots.”
Zach Sears hurled the final 2 2/3 innings for the Green Wave. He gave up 10 runs on 10 hits and took the loss.
Jacob Lambert came to the plate five times Wednesday and got a hit each time. He also scored four runs and led off the top of the Bears lineup — which was very productive.
“He worked real hard the last few days in attacking pitches in the zone,” Miller said. “He’s a freshman so it finally clicked for him and hopefully that’s the start of some things to come from him.”
Josh Pennington went 3-for-4 with four runs and an RBI and Crouse made up for his downfall on the mound with a 3-for-4 game with three runs and two more batted in.
Wilson led the Wave, going 2-for-5 with a run and three RBIs and Mark Martin added a 2-for-3 game in which he scored three runs.
Narrows (7-11, 1-7) will make a return trip to Bastian on Monday for the first round of the district tournament.
“We take a ton of grounders and hit all times,” Patteson said. “We just got to relax, swing and hit it.”
Bland County (7-11, 2-6) is also focused on their upcoming rematch with Narrows.
“We’ve got to do a little bit better job of fielding the ball here,” Miller said. “I don’t know if we’re not reading it or what. But at this time of the year you just try to shore everything up and get started into the postseason now.”
— Contact Jed Lockett
at jlockett@bdtonline.com

At Skip Dillow Memorial Field
Narrows..........00(11) 000 2 — 13 9 6
Bland County.....700 273 x — 19 20 3
Dale Jones, Tyler Wilson (1), Zach Sears (4) and Corey Lowe. Dakotah Crouse, Cody Blessing (4) and Cody Blessing, Jacob Lambert (3). W — Cody Blessing; L — Zach Sears.

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