The Fort Calhoun High School baseball team huddled for a long time after Thursday's loss at Plattsmouth.
The Pioneers talked about their approach — to batting, play in the field and everything else.
“We are overly underachieving,” FCHS coach Roy Prauner said. “Part of that is our approach to what we're doing and the confidence in our approach.”
His ballclub fell to 1-3 with its 4-1 loss on the Blue Devils' turf infield, but had another opportunity to change its fortunes 24 hours later.
The Pioneers did just that.
Calhoun bested Louisville 13-1 at home Friday in just five innings. Coach Prauner's squad scored four runs during the bottom of the first inning, four more in the second and five in the third, putting away the Lions in short order.
Sam Genoways earned the pitching victory, striking out five batters in just four innings of work. AJ Duros, Kenny Wellwood, Carter Christensen and he also combined for nine RBIs, helping their team nearly double its season run total from 14 to 27.
Genoways and Declyn Otte doubled in the game, too.
Against Plattsmouth, though, the Pioneers managed just one run. They scored it during the sixth frame, trailing 3-0.
First, Wellwood singled off of a new Devils pitcher. He moved to second and Genoways walked, which led to a mound visit.
From there, Calhoun's Chase Premer pushed across his team's only run by sacrifice. Alex Christensen walked and Eric Koterba bunted on from there, but the Pioneers' offensive showing wasn't near enough during the three-run loss.
Plattsmouth, meanwhile, scored its runs off of two passed balls, a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and a stolen base when FCHS went after a runner going from first-to-second and allowed another to score from third. The two passed balls during the third inning put the Pioneers into a 2-0 hole.
“I just don't think Chase (Premer) got his glove down,” Prauner said. “That's something our catching coach will work with him on. He saw it in the dugout and it's fixed.”
Otte started for Calhoun on the mound, finishing with six strikeouts in defeat.
FCHS BASEBALL LINE SCORES
Friday
Fort Calhoun 13, Louisville 1, 5 inn.
LHS (1-4) 0 0 1 0 0 — 1
FCHS (2-3) 4 4 5 0 X — 13
Thursday
Plattsmouth 4, Fort Calhoun 1
FCHS (1-3) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 1
PHS (2-0) 0 0 2 1 0 1 X — 4
