McCook First Central Bank Juniors thrown into deep water from the start

HOLDREGE -- A jumbo start for the Holdrege Juniors in the first inning had McCook trying to keep their heads above water throughout Wednesday night's game at Holdrege.

Holdrege came out of the chute by scoring six early runs on McCook and FCB battled, but could not find a way back as the Juniors were upended 10-7.

"The guys actually played a good game. We had a few errors, but the offense kept on fighting back and chipping away," head coach Steve Cochran said.

Despite getting deep in the hole early, Cochran felt like his players did what they could with the bats.

"The guys fought back the entire game. We just ran out of time in the end with the two-hour time limit, so we only got in five-innings," Cochran said.

Kendall Foster was on the mound for the first time of the season. Andrew Reitz came in relief and helped stop the bleeding.

"All I wanted Kendall to do is just go and throw strikes, and he did just that. Holdrege hit the ball really well, and we had a few errors in the field that didn't help him out much either," Cochran said.

"Andrew came in and shut them down for the most part by only allowing them to score four more runs."

Since Holdrege has defeated McCook twice this season, Cochran said he thinks the losses may give his players some incentive to get a big first round win against the same team during district play.

"I told the guys that both of the times we played these guys we were right with them. The guys now know what they need to do to get a win and will be ready to get another shot at them come district time," he said.

The First Central Bank American Legion Juniors (9-22) will not play the doubleheader scheduled with North Platte Thursday night.

The Juniors' next game will be at home on Saturday against Hays, Kan.

The doubleheader will start at noon.

"We will have our whole pitching staff back for Saturday, so we will need to show what we've got during the next few games leading up to districts," Cochran said.