Coach John Roan commented on his 0-5 Blair High School baseball team's struggles Tuesday night.
The Bears, he said, are having hard time playing a complete game.
“Last night, we played extremely well defensively,” the coach noted. “But we couldn't hit the ball.”
The opposite was true at Omaha Gross 24 hours later.
“Tonight, we came out and hit the ball, but we couldn't play defense,” Roan stated.
As a result, the Cougars ultimately run-ruled BHS, securing a 16-6 victory in just five innings. After an even — although miscue-filled — start, the home team tallied 11 runs across the last two innings to improve to 4-1 overall.
Blair, however, dropped its fifth-straight game to start the season. It did so even after taking a 6-5 lead midway through the fourth frame.
Down 5-3, BHS' Thomas Chikos, Carter Saylor and Brevin Leggott loaded the bases. Nathan Murray hit the ball on the ground through the middle of the infield next, getting just enough of the Gross pitch with his bat to score Chikos.
Senior Nelson Kosch then evened the score at 5-5, hitting the ball into a run-scoring fielder's choice, before Lucas Matejka's deep sacrifice fly into left field produced a one-run lead.
A later groundout ended the Bears' inning, but the seven-run bottom half all but destroyed their chances of picking up the road win. Kosch saved at least one run with a diving catch in centerfield, but the Cougars still pulled away. They'd add four more runs during the bottom of the fifth, too, ending the game early and pushing up the start to junior varsity warmups.
“Unfortunately, until we put a complete game together, I don't think we're going to win a lot of games,” Roan said. “We just need to be able to come back and bounce back.”
The Bears notably struggled at the start of the 2024 season, too, before qualifying for their first state tournament in seven years. The coach's message to this year's team is the same as it was to that one — be playing your best baseball by the latter stages of the season.
The Bears were scheduled to play at Waverly on Thursday and next host Class B No. 2 Norris today at Vets Field. First pitch is set for 4:30 p.m.
Antlers no-hit Bears
BHS failed to secure a hit Monday against Elkhorn, falling 3-0 to the No. 6 Antlers at Vets Field.
Elkhorn had four errors and Jakob Gaskill walked, but that was all the Bears could muster offensively. The Antlers, meanwhile, secured five hits and walked six times in victory.
Colton Flynn pitched 4 2/3 innings for Blair, striking out four batters. Murray struck out two in 1 1/3, too, while Andrew Smutny threw a scoreless inning in defeat as well.
BHS BASEBALL LINE SCORES
Tuesday
Omaha Gross 16, Blair 6, 5 inn.
BHS (0-5) 2 1 0 3 0 — 6 8 7
OG (4-1) 3 2 0 7 4 — 16 7 0
Monday
No. 6 Elkhorn 3, Blair 0
EHS (5-3) 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 — 3 5 4
BHS (0-4) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 0 1
