Louisburg senior Cody Vail slides safely into third base during Monday’s regional tournament game in Ottawa. The Wildcats fell to Ottawa 16-1 in five innings to end their season. (Photo by Andy Brown)
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Cyclones wash away Wildcats’ season
By Andy Brown, andybrown@miconews.com
This wasn’t what the Louisburg baseball team expected. In fact, the Wildcats didn’t even think it was possible.
Louisburg, which traveled to Ottawa for the first round of regional tournament play on Monday, faced off against the host team and pitcher Jake Moore. This was the same team and pitcher the Wildcats had beaten just two weeks earlier.
Monday was anything but similar.
No. 4 Ottawa jumped on the No. 5 Wildcats from the opening inning and never looked back in the 16-1 thrashing that prematurely ended their season. The loss gave the Wildcats a final record of 8-10.
“This was just a frustrating end to a what was a disappointing season,” Louisburg coach Jeff Lohse said. “We thought there was a good chance we could come here and beat (Ottawa), and if we did that, we could possibly win the whole thing. It just didn’t happen that way.”
The Wildcats opened the game with a 1-0 lead after Jared Drew and Cody Vail put on a double steal, and Drew later scored on a catcher’s throwing error. But after that, it was downhill for Louisburg.
Three errors, two walks and a grand slam later, the Cyclones stormed to a 5-1 lead after the first inning and took an 8-1 lead after three innings.
“Things really snowballed for us in the first inning, there is no doubt about that,” Lohse said. “They guys played hard, but Ottawa was just the better team (Monday) and you have to give them credit. They got the hits when they needed to, and we didn’t take advantage.”
The Wildcats tried to make a comeback in the fourth when Cody Larson led off with a walk and Kyle Nauman and Matt Lemke hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. However, Moore struck out the next three Louisburg batters to get out of the jam, and the Wildcats never threatened again.
“The grand slam was a blow to us,” Drew said. “It definitely was. But we were still in the game when we had the bases loaded with no outs, and we couldn’t do anything with it. That was probably the biggest blow right there.”
Ottawa scored eight more runs in the bottom of the fourth to seal the five-inning victory. Larson started the game for Louisburg and pitched just three innings before senior Jacob Jenkins came in for relief.
The season was filled with ups and downs for the Wildcats, and the team had high hopes for a run a state tournament appearance. But unfortunately, their run fell short.
“This definitely wasn’t what I thought it would be,” Drew said. “I have played varsity since my sophomore year, and I have played on good teams. We had a lot of guys coming back, and I knew we could be good. But we didn’t reach our potential.”
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Louisburg, which traveled to Ottawa for the first round of regional tournament play on Monday, faced off against the host team and pitcher Jake Moore. This was the same team and pitcher the Wildcats had beaten just two weeks earlier.
Monday was anything but similar.
No. 4 Ottawa jumped on the No. 5 Wildcats from the opening inning and never looked back in the 16-1 thrashing that prematurely ended their season. The loss gave the Wildcats a final record of 8-10.
“This was just a frustrating end to a what was a disappointing season,” Louisburg coach Jeff Lohse said. “We thought there was a good chance we could come here and beat (Ottawa), and if we did that, we could possibly win the whole thing. It just didn’t happen that way.”
The Wildcats opened the game with a 1-0 lead after Jared Drew and Cody Vail put on a double steal, and Drew later scored on a catcher’s throwing error. But after that, it was downhill for Louisburg.
Three errors, two walks and a grand slam later, the Cyclones stormed to a 5-1 lead after the first inning and took an 8-1 lead after three innings.
“Things really snowballed for us in the first inning, there is no doubt about that,” Lohse said. “They guys played hard, but Ottawa was just the better team (Monday) and you have to give them credit. They got the hits when they needed to, and we didn’t take advantage.”
The Wildcats tried to make a comeback in the fourth when Cody Larson led off with a walk and Kyle Nauman and Matt Lemke hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. However, Moore struck out the next three Louisburg batters to get out of the jam, and the Wildcats never threatened again.
“The grand slam was a blow to us,” Drew said. “It definitely was. But we were still in the game when we had the bases loaded with no outs, and we couldn’t do anything with it. That was probably the biggest blow right there.”
Ottawa scored eight more runs in the bottom of the fourth to seal the five-inning victory. Larson started the game for Louisburg and pitched just three innings before senior Jacob Jenkins came in for relief.
The season was filled with ups and downs for the Wildcats, and the team had high hopes for a run a state tournament appearance. But unfortunately, their run fell short.
“This definitely wasn’t what I thought it would be,” Drew said. “I have played varsity since my sophomore year, and I have played on good teams. We had a lot of guys coming back, and I knew we could be good. But we didn’t reach our potential.”