Mitchell Legion team falls 5-2

VALLEY SPRINGS — Mitchell Legion Post 18 had some uncharacteristic mistakes that wound up costing the team a few scoring opportunities and the team fell 5-2 to Brandon Valley in Legion baseball action Wednesday in Valley Springs.

“We had the lead and had a couple opportunities to add to it,” head coach Luke Norden said. “We failed to execute a bunt with two guys on and we failed to execute a hit-and-run and both ended up costing us.”

Starting pitcher Lakin Neugebauer pitched into the sixth inning before being pulled for reliever Jared Schmidt.

Neugebauer finished with 5 1/3 innings pitched, allowing one run on five hits and one walk. He struck out five.

“He’s had a couple rough outings in the past and he did a fantastic job,” Norden said. “He didn’t walk a guy until the sixth inning when he started getting tired so we took him out.”

Neugebauer recorded a 1-2-3 inning four times in the game and finished with a no-decision.

Brandon Valley was able to get its offense working against Post 18’s reliever Schmidt.

Schmidt allowed four runs — three earned — on five hits. He had five strikeouts.

Norden said his team looked tired late in the game, something the team has been avoiding during a stretch of many games.

“You get more tired when you fail to do things,” he said. “You don’t let those things come out and you don’t look tired until things don’t go your way. Then everybody gets the life sucked out of them and that’s what happened.”

Post 18 recorded eight hits as a team in the nine-inning contest. Schmidt accounted for half the offensive output with a 4-for-4 performance.

Norden said he was pleased to see Schmidt record four opposite-field hits when the opposing pitchers were pitching to the outside part of the plate.

“He’s been doing a lot of that this year,” Norden said. “We just couldn’t get anybody on base in front of him. The one inning we did have guys on base he had an RBI.”

Schmidt’s RBI single in the third inning put Mitchell up 2-0 after Evan Mastel had an RBI single earlier in the inning.

Mastel’s RBI hit came on a squeeze bunt that he beat out for a hit.

The loss drops Post 18’s record to 26-16 and the team returns to the diamond on Friday in the Gopher Classic.

Mitchell’s first game in the tournament is set for 9 a.m. against Harrisonville, Mo., in Minneapolis. Immediately after that game Post 18 takes on Alexandria, Minn.

Tags: sports, updates, baseball