Raiders slugged, 19-13 / LJWorld.com

Archive for Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Fielding miscues doom Lawrence

Lawrence’s Matt Abel, left, makes his way to third base after an error by the Kansas City Sluggers’ third baseman. The Sluggers beat the Raiders, 19-13, Tuesday at Ice Field.

By Chuck Woodling

July 1, 2009

Raiders fall to Sluggers

The KC Sluggers took down the Lawrence Raiders, 19-13. Enlarge video

Photo by Kevin Anderson

The Lawrence Raiders’ Ben Wyatt, left, tries to tag a Kansas City Slugger base-runner in the fourth inning of the Raiders’ 19-13 loss Tuesday at Ice Field. Story on page 5B.

Sweet one minute. Bitter the next. It was that kind of night for the Lawrence Raiders’ Jack Bush.

At the plate, Bush unloaded a grand slam in the first inning, but was the losing pitcher as the K.C. Sluggers outlasted the Raiders, 19-13, in Legion baseball Tuesday night at Ice Field.

“It was frustrating,” Bush said. “I thought I was pitching kind of good.”

Unfortunately, the Raiders were fielding kind of bad, forced Bush to remain on the mound too long, and, as he said, “I started getting the ball up.”

Bush surrendered 10 hits and eight runs in his two innings, but some of those hits were misplayed fly balls and pop-ups and, because of a couple of infield errors, all eight runs were unearned.

“It was a great day to hit,” Raiders’ outfielder Travis Sanders said. “The wind was blowing out, and we don’t see that very often at Ice — the sun was a factor, too — but you can’t win when you play defense as poorly as we did.”

After six of the nine innings, the Sluggers led, 19-6, but the Raiders rallied for five runs in the seventh and added single runs in the eighth and ninth.

“We had the bases loaded with two outs a couple of times,” Raiders coach Wilson Kilmer said. “If we get a couple of big hits then, it’s a close game.”

Kilmer spent several minutes talking to his players afterward.

“Physical errors will happen,” Kilmer said, “but what I’m most upset about is some lack of focus, like throwing the ball home when we shouldn’t and reacting too early on pop-ups and not being able to handle it.”

On the positive side, the 13 runs were the Raiders’ second-highest offensive output of the season. They had scored 14 against McPherson a few weeks ago in a tournament in Emporia.

Bush’s salami traveled well over the fence in left-center field and was better hit, he said, than the grand slam he belted against Leavenworth while wearing a Lawrence High uniform in the spring.

“That one hit the top of the wall,” Bush said.

Even though the wind was blowing out, Bush hit the lone homer of the night. The Sluggers collected 20 hits against eight Raiders hurlers, but none of them went over the fence.

Sanders, Matthew Abel and Taylor Gentry had two-hit nights. Sanders drove in a pair of runs, as did Cody Jones with a seventh-inning single.

The Raiders scored their 13 runs thanks to 11 hits, nine walks and two hit batters charged to four Sluggers hurlers.

The Raiders (7-12) are scheduled to leave this morning for a five-day tournament in Bartlesville, Okla. Rogers, Ark., is their first-round foe at 4:15 p.m. today.

“We’re ready to get the bad taste out after tonight,” Abel said. “We’ve just got to play defense. We didn’t show up behind our pitchers tonight.”