The Blair High School baseball team allowed just one more run after a difficult start Friday at Vets Field.
Down 6-0, the Bears settled in and played, essentially, even with Gretna East to start a weekend stretch of three games in less than 24 hours. Coach John Roan's team lost the first game with the Class B No. 6 Griffins, 7-0, but outfielder Carter Saylor was optimistic going into Saturday's play at Elkhorn Mount Michael.
“We'll find gaps with those hits,” he said, noting the Bears' aggressive swings at home. “It'll come along.”
The best bet for success the next day?
“We've just got to throw strikes, make plays, and it'll happen,” Saylor said. “We're right there.”
BHS ultimately went 1-1 at Mount Michael, earning an extra-innings win against Platte Valley after an 11-6 loss to the host Knights. The Bears are 6-16 this season.
“Yeah, it feels great,” Coach Roan said after a 3-2 win against the Patriots. “They played really well.”
Nathan Murray plated Blair's go-ahead run during the top of the eighth inning, capitalizing on Cam Wilkins' walk, an Aiden McBreen bunt and Brevin Leggott's single.
Pitcher Jakob Gaskill closed out the victory from there after Owen Mann pitched “amazing,” according to Roan, across 5 2/3 innings.
Prior to the Platte Valley win, though, BHS lost by five runs to Mount Michael. The Bears led 1-0 after one inning, but allowed 11 runs across the next four frames in defeat.
Colton Nixon had two RBIs during the game, while Leggott, Murray, Lucas Matejka and Saylor had one apiece. Leggott was 3-for-4 at the plate altogether.
To start the three-game stretch, though, the Bears managed just two hits against East.
Even so, BHS made plenty of contact swings off of Griffins pitching Friday night. The first five outs the visitors earned came on ground balls.
Gaskill and Colton Flynn wound up with Blair's hits, while Nelson Kosch and Nixon drew a walk each. Hudson Hamm reached base when he was hit by an East pitch, too.
Defensively, the Bears' starting pitcher — Flynn — threw 60 pithes during the first two innings as the opposition scored six runs. After that, though, he threw two scoreless frames, finishing with five strikeouts at Vets Field.
Brock Hamm gave up one run in two innings of mound work, too, while Wilkins pitched the scoreless seventh frame.
Altogether, Saylor said consistency has been the Bears' biggest challenge this spring.
“We just need to flow it all together,” he said.
Blair's next chance is 6:30 p.m. today at Elkhorn North after Monday's home game with Seward.
BHS BASEBALL LINE SCORES
Saturday
Blair 3, Platte Valley 2, 8 inn.
BHS (6-16) 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 — 3 7 4
PV (5-13) 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 2 6 0
No. 7 Elkhorn Mount Michael 11, Blair 6
BHS (5-16) 1 0 1 3 0 1 0 — 6 10 4
EMM (7-10) 0 2 4 1 4 0 X — 11 9 1
Friday
No. 6 Gretna East 7, Blair 0
GE (10-8) 1 5 0 0 0 1 0 — 7 10 1
BHS (5-15) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 2 0
