Shaky start leads to nightmare for Seniors

OGALLALA -- Inconsistency in the field and on the mound continued to hurt the McCook National Bank American Legion Seniors as they fell to Ogallala 18-5 Tuesday night on the road.

In the five-inning game, McCook walked 12 batters and committed four errors in the field.

"All of our pitchers had trouble throwing strikes tonight. When this happens, our fielders are not in the game and just waiting for something to happen. This is what leads us to our errors," head coach Justin Wacker said.

Mason Pohl, Allan Shiers and Brad Potthoff pitched for the Seniors. Ogallala pounded 11 hits to go with its 18 runs.

"Errors killed us in the first three innings. We just continue to shoot ourselves in the foot and get into a hole that we can't get out of," Wacker said.

At the dish, McCook rattled out four hits and reached base six times on a walk or a hit batsmen. Jared Muehlenkamp led MNB by going 2 for 3 with a pair of singles.

"We didn't have a bad game at the plate. We were getting base runners on, but we trailed by so many runs we really couldn't get much done," Wacker said.

Ogallala's Riley Chandler didn't allow McCook very many hits at the plate and Wacker believed timing played a crucial part in this area of the game.

"We had a hard time getting the guy's timing down. He was basically just getting us out with fastballs and we were behind them. We were taking the walks when we could get them, but couldn't figure out his fastball," Wacker said.

The McCook National Bank American Legion Seniors (6-11) will compete with district opponent Lexington tonight. The game will start at 8 p.m. in Lexington.

"We will need to cut down on our errors. We have had 20 in our past five games which is completely unacceptable," Wacker said. "Everything will start with our pitching and defense. If we can get those two going, we have the hitting to win some ball games."