Ogallala slides by FCB in the seventh inning

Brett Burton/McCook Daily Gazette McCook First Central Bank Juniors' Andrew Reitz rounds third base en route to scoring one of his team's four runs in an 8-4 loss to the Ogallala Juniors Wednesday night at Jaycees Sports Complex.

Trailing by one going into the seventh inning of Wednesday's game against Ogallala, the First Central Bank Juniors had put themselves in position to rally in the bottom of the seventh and win their fifth game of the season.

The Ogallala Juniors thought differently as they scored three runs of their own in the top of the seventh to get the victory 8-4.

"We had our 4-5-6 hitters up going into the bottom of the seventh, and I liked the position that we were in. We have been getting on base, but we are having a hard time getting the runs across," coach Steve Cochran said.

"It was a lot closer game than the scoreboard showed at the end of the night."

Ryan Eder was on the mound for FCB, and kept the team in the ball game, said Cochran.

Sam Frazier came in as relief once Eder got around the 100-pitch count.

"Ryan throws his heart out every game. Sam did a great job coming in and closing things down for Ryan, but it was the defensive mental mistakes that cost us the game," Cochran said.

Eder also fared well at the plate by dropping one over the fence for his first home run of the season.

"That was good to see that Ryan hit with some power last night. He had another deep ball, but he just got under it a little bit," Cochran said.

The Juniors struggled in the field by having six errors and a couple of those late in the game.

"Our defense had a hard time making routine plays to get routine outs. The early season errors really hurt us, but we are putting things together a little more after the Beatrice game," Cochran said.

"We are going to have some guys step up and make routine plays, and also make some that we are not expecting."

FCB hitters stepped up to the plate with confidence Wednesday night. Eder and Frazier combined for four hits.

Andrew Reitz was 3 for 4 with three singles.

As for the defense, Cochran is still trying to find a solid infield that will help him win some more games early in the year.

"It is fast and furious with a lot of games coming up. We are going to change some things up in the infield during tonight's game because we are still searching at a couple of positions," Cochran said.

"Once we get those people in place, I think we should come together and be a good ball team."

The FCB Juniors (4-3) will play Imperial at 6 p.m. CT Thursday.

"Tonight we just need to do exactly what we didn't get done last night. When we get runners on base, we need to get runs across the plate, and the defense needs to show up," Cochran said.