Raiders flip morning foe, flop in afternoon

A ground ball slips by Lawrence Raider shortstop Nate Hulse in the Raiders’ 12-0 loss to the BC Cubs, Saturday, June 14, 2014, at Free State High.

A ground ball slips by Lawrence Raider shortstop Nate Hulse in the Raiders’ 12-0 loss to the BC Cubs, Saturday, June 14, 2014, at Free State High.

Nothing could go wrong for the Lawrence Raiders in their first baseball game on Saturday morning at Free State High.

The Raiders had plenty of base hits, strong pitching, and solid defense.

Then after their 10-0 victory against SED Sports, which was shortened to four innings because of the mercy rule, nothing could go right.

The Raiders lost, 12-0, to the BC Cubs in four innings during their second game of the day in the MB Tournament.

All of the momentum from the first game vanished in the afternoon, with three errors and only two hits.

“First game we just came out real aggressive at the plate, swung at strikes, didn’t swing at bad pitches,” Nolan Prochaska said. “Then this game, we just weren’t locked in. In the field, making errors. Swinging at balls all over the plate. That was a big difference.”

During the first game of the day, the Raiders (3-7) scored three runs in the first inning, highlighted by a two-run double from Nate Hulse.

Prochaska hit a leadoff triple in the second inning and scored on a sacrifice fly.

“They gave me some fastballs and I hit them,” Prochaska said. “He left them up over the plate. It happens.”

The first four batters reached base in the third inning, with hits from Zach Bickling and Zak McAlister. Ryan Cantrell added a RBI double and Drew Green cleared the bases with a two-run double in the six-run frame.

Cantrell also dominated on the mound, cruising through the four innings in just 48 pitches — allowing one hit and no walks.

So what happened in the second game?

“That’s the big question,” Raiders coach Brad Romme said. “It was like two different teams out there. We run-ruled in the first game so we had a long break, and we did not handle that break very well.”

The BC Cubs scored one run in the first inning and added three more in the second after an error extended the frame.

In the third inning, the Cubs used a two-out rally to score three runs and a pair of errors helped them score five in the fourth.

The Raiders also couldn’t get the bats going, with Cantrell hitting an infield single in the first inning and Green smashing a double in the right-center gap in the fourth for the team’s only hits.

“We were constantly swinging from behind in the count,” Romme said. “I think Drew put a good swing on one and I don’t remember too many hard-hit balls in the second game. We need to be a little bit more mature with our time in between games.”

The Raiders will play their final game of the MB Tournament at 9 a.m. today against the Wichita Dodgers at FSHS.


Raiders 10, SED Sports 0

Sports 000 0 — 0 1 1

Raiders 316 x — 10 6 0

W — Ryan Cantrell.

2B — Cantrell, Drew Green, Nate Hulse, Zak McAlister, . 3B — Green, Nolan Prochaska.

Raiders highlights — Cantrell, 4 IP, 1 H, 2 Ks; Green, 2-for-3, 2 RBI, run; Zach Bickling, 2-for-2, run; Hulse, 1-for-1, 2 runs, 2 RBIs; McAlister, 1-for-1, 2 RBI; Prochaska, 2-for-2, 2 RBIs.

BC Cubs 12, Raiders 0

BC Cubs 133 5 — 12 10 1

Raiders 000 0 — 0 2 3

L — Nate Hulse.

2B — Drew Green.