Bulldog baseball loses close battle to Cardinals
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
BOYCEVILLE — The only loss Boyceville suffered on its way to the WIAA Division 4 state championship last season was to conference foe Spring Valley.
So, the Bulldogs knew their early-season showdown against the Cardinals last Monday, April 11 at Evenson Field would be huge in determining the course of this year’s Dunn-St. Croix title race.
Uncharacteristic of the talented teams, both had errors (Spring Valley 4 and Boyceville 2) in the contest that was played in cold and windy conditions.
But it was Spring Valley that was able overcome its own faux pas while taking full advantage of the Bulldogs’ miscues to take an early 3-0 lead and then held on to defeat Boyceville 5-3 behind the pitching performance of Connor Ducklow who allowed just three hits in six innings of work.
The Cardinals improved to 2-0 while the Bulldogs slipped to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in conference.
“We were just not mentally focused this game,” stated Boyceville head coach Michael Roemhild.
“We had four mistakes that gave Spring Valley extra runs, whether they were physical or mental. Spring Valley was loose and confident. We were trying to be perfect and make the big at bat every time,” he added.
The Cardinals jumped to a 2-0 advantage in the top of the first inning thanks to a two-run home run by Charlie Maier off the Bulldogs’ senior starting pitcher Jacob Granley. Tyler Bowman had reached base on a Boyceville error in the previous at bat and had stolen second when Maier put the ball over the center field fence.
Spring Valley made it 3-0 when Elijah Butts singled to open the second inning and eventually came around to score on a Boyceville error.
In the Bulldogs half of the second inning, senior Dawson McRoberts led off with a base hit, advanced to second when junior Chase Hollister followed with a single and scored on back-to-back wild pitches by Spring Valley starter Connor Ducklow. That cut the Cardinals’ lead to 3-1.
Spring Valley, however, added yet another run in the third inning. Helping out his own cause, Ducklow drew a walk off Granley to open the inning, stole both second and third bases and scored on Jackson Stein’s base hit.
Boyceville cut its deficit to just a run, at 4-3, with a pair of scores in the bottom half of the third. Senior Ira Bialzik led off the frame with a base hit. Granley followed with his own single to put runners at first and second. Both would come in to score on Hollister’s base hit.
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs would go scoreless over the final four frames while the Cardinals added an insurance run in the top half of the fifth when Bowman walked, took second on an error and scored on Maier’s second hit of the game to make it 5-3
And that is how the game ended.
Granley, who threw 100 pitches in his five and two-thirds innings of work took the loss. Although he surrendered just four hits it lead to all five Cardinal runs including that key 2-run homer in the first. Granley struck out eight and walked three. In an inning and a third of relief pitching, Chase Hollister did not offer up a hit, run or walk and finished with a strikeout.
“Defensively, we didn’t do a good job holding runners on and made it difficult on Tyler (Dormanen) behind the plate. I thought Jacob Granley’s curveball got better as the game went on. I may have rode him too long but he is a senior, felt good, and I trusted him. I don’t like that I let him get to 100 pitches no matter who we were playing, so I will take the blame for that,” stated Roemhild.
He added, “I need to trust in my younger pitchers. We wanted to save Chase as much as possible for our game Thursday (which was postponed by weather), but I thought when he came in for the last inning and a half that he pitched really well. We just played like we were in cement and had a fog in our brain.”
Boyceville finished with just three hits over the seven-inning contest – singles by Bialzik, Granley and Hollister.
“Offensively, we did not take a good approach at the plate at all. We were trying to kill the ball, we’re swinging at bad pitches, and taking good pitches. I got conservative and should have stole more, we left too many runners on the base, and we just didn’t step up to the plate with confidence,” Roemhild said.
Charlie Maier led Valley’s offense with two of the team’s four hits including that home run to finish with three RBIs.
Connor Ducklow earned the pitching victory as he allowed just three runs on a trio of hits and struck out 11 Boyceville batters while walking two. Tyler Bowman pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the Cardinals.
“Overall I was disappointed with our performance. We just simply did not have a good game in all areas, coaching included. We can’t get away with that against the top teams in the conference. We had a long talk today, worked through some of our biggest weaknesses from the game, and put this game behind us(we won’t forget it) until we meet them again,” concluded Roemhild.