By RYAN WALKER
Concordia’s baseball team escaped Ossian with a victory over Norwell 4-3 on Monday.
The Cadets (6-5) did not score a run until the fourth inning when a wild throw and an RBI fielder’s choice plated home two to take a 2-1 advantage. Then in the sixth inning, Concordia took the lead for good on an RBI triple by Jake Belschaner, followed by Maddox Wright’s single to bring him home.
That sixth was the only inning where Concordia got to Norwell starting pitcher Brody Bolyn with three hard-hit balls. The senior went seven complete innings, allowing two unearned runs, and struck out seven; However, he was given the loss.
“Brody did a good job. He did a good job. We didn’t help him out on a couple plays that ended up hurting us,” head coach Dave Goodmiller said after the game.
The Knights (9-4) also strung together seven hits in the game. Bolyn had three of them, legging out a triple in the first inning, and had two RBIs.
Cale Mallery drove in the final run the Knights would have with a rocket to left-center field for an extra-base hit in the sixth inning.
Despite the seven hits and four walks, Norwell’s kryptonite was stranding runners in scoring position — doing so four times.
Goodmiller thought that his team lacked some fire on Monday, challenging his team to pick one another up in the dugout. Part of the reason, he believes, is the number of games coming up over the next few weeks and the importance of those games.
This week, Norwell starts conference play on a 24-hour turnaround against Leo, then follows that with NE8 foe Bellmont on Thursday, then at Carroll the next day.
The following week, Norwell has a four-game stretch Monday-Thursday and a doubleheader on that Saturday, but Goodmiller doesn’t want to use that as an excuse.
“I thought we were a little flat coming out tonight,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of games the next two weeks. Everybody does. I mean, it’s going to be kind of a battle of attrition, and I feel like we’ve got pitching, and we can match up with some people and so on, but we’re going to have to score some runs, and we’re going to have to tough it out and play good defense.”
With the quick turnaround against Leo, the team will need to make adjustments on the fly. Goodmiller noted that the team hit too many fly balls and wants to see his players command the strike zone better at the plate rather than chasing out of the zone.
The Lions have had a slower start than normal to the season but are a team to look out for in the conference, as they went a perfect 7-0 just two years ago in the Northeast 8.
That game is set to start at 6:30 p.m. at Norwell.
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