BELOIT—Head coach Steven Johnson knows just how close his Beloit Memorial squad is to becoming a serious contender in the Southern Lakes Conference.
That’s what made Tuesday evening’s 6-5 loss at the hands of Waterford in eight innings at a sunny and warm Pohlman Field all the more frustrating.
“Sometimes the chips don’t fall your way,” Johnson said. “And just being in an eight-inning game, it's exciting. It's exciting to be here and have that chance at the end. We just couldn't finish, that's all. Last year, this team (beat us by 10 runs). But this year, we're a different team.”
Tied up at five, the Wolverines’ Zach Flater started the extra frame by lacing a double into right field off reliever Owen West, who had just entered. Connor Harvie moved him to third on a single to center and, after a pop out, Hayden Milosh snuck one through the shortstop hole and into left field to bring home the game-winning run.
“Unfortunately, we don't have the depth where we can have a pitcher in the dugout just waiting to warm up and take over the spot,” Johnson said. “We have to pick somebody out of the field. Only letting in one run, that's good for us because Owen didn't have many warm up pitches.”
West then got a pop out and Brenin Pearson made a nice diving grab on a fly out to left field to give the Purple Knights (1-8, 1-6 SLC) a chance.
“Waterford is very well-coached and their hitters hit the ball very hard,” Johnson continued. “Fortunately for us, we've got an awesome outfield. When we've got our top three outfielders out there, there's not a whole lot of balls that fall.”
But Beloit went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth on a fly out and two groundouts.
Jack Butler smacked a two-run single off Knights’ starter Dustin Foss in the first but Beloit got a run back in the bottom of the frame when Michael Nora’s sacrifice fly scored Mitch Stuessy, who had reached on a fielder’s choice after trying to bunt Owen West over.
Nora walloped a two-run single past the third baseman in the third to tie it at three.
“A couple weeks ago Mike was having confidence issues and wanted to be moved down the order. Well, my confidence in him was higher than his confidence in him,” Johnson said with a chuckle. “He's a powerful hitter and is one of those guys that, at any given moment, he can get his pitch and drive one.”
Foss followed up with a hard hit of his own, which ate up the shortstop and allowed the Knights to take a 4-3 lead.
Waterford (4-8, 1-6) tied it back up in the fifth when Jack Krueger singled, moved to second on a balk and scored on Zaidan Elbin’s single.
West was hit by a pitch to start the sixth and moved to second on a sac bunt. Brooks Mitchell was intentionally walked and, a fly out later, Foss lined a single into center. West came around and scored but the umpire ruled Mitchell, who came gunning home behind his teammate, out at home plate.
“(The catcher) missed the tag, there was no tag,” Johnson said. “Well, that umpire didn't see it and the other umpire said he wasn't going to overrule it, so we didn't have an argument there.”
Up by one in the seventh, Foss allowed a double by Weston Hotopp and Eblin’s game-tying single fell into center.
Foss finished with five runs (three earned) on 12 hits with three strikeouts. And Beloit’s fielding was strong behind him, overcoming an early error to make some strong plays throughout the evening.
Stuessy, Mitchell and Nora all finished with two hits while Foss had three. But the bottom four batters in the Knights' lineup combined to go 0-for-13.
“Defense held us in this game,” Johnson said. “And our middle hitters (Mitchell, Nora, Foss) held us in this game. That’s the meat of our order. When we get down to seven, eight and nine, we've got issues. Those are holes we got to fill and work on those things.”
And while the Knights are still looking to climb up the SLC standings, Johnson likes the competitive jump he’s seen from this squad this year.
“In the past, we've lost a lot of ten run games,” he said. “Our last three (conference) games have been a win, a loss by one and a loss by one. So, we're right there. And this is a tough conference. Three of these teams are in the top 25 in the state. So there's some good baseball and we're hanging with them. And that feels good.”
• LINESCORE:
WATERFORD 6, BELOIT MEMORIAL 5 (8)
Wat 210 010 11 — 6 15 0
BM 103 001 00 — 5 10 2
Leading hitters: Wat, Falter 4x5, 2 Runs, 1 RBI; Butler 2x4, 2 RBI; Harrie 2x4, 1 Run; Krueger 2x5, 1 Run; Eblin 2x4. BM, West 1x4, 2 Runs; Stuessy 2x4, 2 Runs; Mitchell 2x3, 1 Run; Nora 2x4, 3 RBI; Foss 3x3, 1 RBI.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Wat, Eblin 7.0-10-5-5-3-6, Hotopp 1.0-0-0-0-0-0. BM, Foss 7.0-12-5-3-0-3, West 1.0-3-1-1-0-0.
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