District favorite Bow barely escapes FCB Juniors

BROKEN BOW, Neb. — Broken Bow’s narrow 10-9 win over the First Central Bank Juniors Tuesday night was just another good sign for coach James Mockry.

“We played a fantastic game against the best team in the district on their home field,” he proclaimed even the Juniors slipped to 8-14 overall. “And we’re getting five or six more players moving up since some of our other teams are finishing their seasons soon. I’m telling you: we are going to be a dangerous force (at district playoff time).”

The FCB Juniors outhit Bow, 12-10, and wiped out an early 4-0 deficit.

Quentin Terry, Jaret Neben and Lincoln Michaelis fueled the early rally with RBIs.

Broken Bow — the almost certain district No. 1 seed — regained a 9-7 lead entering the final inning.

However, FCB plated two more runs as Espn Hall and Bryson Gullion both raced home after pitches bounced to the backstop.

Bow finally prevailed on Max Denson’s RBI, walk-off double in the bottom of Bow’s sixth inning.

Mockry will look forward to another shot when his Juniors bring either a No. 3 or 4 seed into the seven-team district tournament starting next week.

Kooper Rakes provided some spark as he ripped two hits which matched new FCB player Grady Miller’s two.

“Grady got his shot because of injuries, and he produced,” Mockry observed.

Gullion’s three hits led the FCB attack where three other players totaled two.

Hall started on the mound while Neben worked in relief.

“Espn is looking good, and Jaret has surprised me a bit. He has thrown a lot of strikes,” Mockry said. “We have some younger guys moving up who throw strikes. Throwing strikes is all that I ask. If they do that, we’ll be OK.”

The Juniors play one more game at Cozad tonight in a Juniors-only meting.

“Cozad is 1-7 in league play at last check, but they did beat Gothenburg,” Mockry said. “At this point, we don’t want to overlook anyone. We have a chance to finish above .500 in league.”

Frankly, Mockry doesn’t mind if his team takes a lower seed into the district tournament.

He believes they’ve hit all better season when being the road team on scoreboards.

“We just seemed to be more relaxed, cool and calm,” he explained. “At home, we seem to get a little trigger happy.”

More details about the upcoming district tournament will appear soon. There are seven teams set to compete.