Blair High School baseball supporters couldn't see Thursday's final score on the malfunctioning Omaha Skutt scoreboard and likely didn't want to.
Their Bears team had one last opportunity to cut into its deficit and continue the spring season, but the chance ended on a double play ground ball to Platte Valley's third baseman. BHS lost 3-1, ending the spring 7-21 overall.
Even with three Patriot errors, coach John Roan's team just couldn't get enough hits through the infield or to drop onto the outfield grass during the Class B District 1 Tournament opener.
“That's the unfortunate thing about baseball,” the coach said. “Sometimes they fall and sometimes they don't.”
They didn't at Skutt, ending a Blair campaign with a victory against 20-win Waverly, but many more close defeats.
“Today was just one of those days where they weren't falling for us,” Roan said. “It's unfortunate that it happened today, but it could happen any day.”
BHS scored its first and only run during the opening frame. Freshman Brevin Leggott hit a single from the leadoff spot in the batting order and scored when catcher Andrew Smutny hit into one of the aforementioned Platte Valley errors. Nelson Kosch and Nathan Murray helped move their team's first runner from first to third base on a bunt and groundout.
After that, though, the Bears managed just three more hits across six more innings. Infielder Owen Mann notched a hit down the right field line during the second frame before Murray reached base a few innings later.
Finally, during the seventh, Blair's Colton Nixon logged his team's fourth hit of the game and last of the season before the game-ending double play.
Defensively, Coach Roan's ballclub allowed two runs during the second frame and one more during the fifth. The first Patriot scored on a single before the next on a fielder's choice.
The third Platte Valley run then scored on one of the Bears' two errors.
Hans Sorensen pitched all seven innings for BHS, allowing six hits, but striking out three batters, too.
“He did his job and he did it amazingly even though he didn't have his best stuff,” Roan said. “But he still found a way to compete, and went out and worked hard for us.”
Across 95 pitches, the right-hander threw 58 strikes.
“He got us out of some pretty tough jams,” Sorensen's coach said. “Kept us in it the whole time.”
The Blair hits just didn't come, closing out the Bears' season well short of a return to the state tournament after 2024's qualification.
Next, though, many on Coach Roan's roster will move onto their American Legion slate of games. He hopes the players continue to work and improve.
“I heard a saying one time that, 'If you can get 1 percent better every day, that's 365-percent better by the end of the year,'” the coach said. “So, I think that's just what we need to shoot for as a team and, I think, that's what they need to shoot for as individuals.”
CLASS B DISTRICT 1 TOURNAMENT
Friday at Omaha Skutt
Platte Valley 3, Blair 1
PV (7-18) 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 — 3 6 3
BHS (7-21) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 4 2
