Colts derailed in late loss to Hounds

By Ryan McCracken on April 21, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

If it’s true that you need to be lucky to be good, and good to be lucky, then Hunter Livingston was both Friday at Athletic Park.

The Notre Dame Hounds shortstop turned the tides in an eventual 22-9 victory over the McCoy Colts when a throwing error allowed him to stretch a bases-clearing double into an inside the park home run in the sixth inning — flipping a three-run deficit into a one-run lead — then he drove in three more on an RBI error as part of a 14-run seventh inning that sent 19 hitters to the plate.

“It was quite a few runs. We weren’t really expecting that,” said Livingston. “We’re a hard working team top to bottom, so that helps … Our school preaches never giving up.”

McCoy took off to a strong start and held Notre Dame in a 7-3 ball game through five innings with all seven of their runs coming on two-out rallies, but a series of infield errors paved the way to disaster in the final two frames.

“We gave them way too many opportunities with errors and walks and just extra bases. The scoreboard shows what happens when you do stuff like that. It’s a tough finish, for sure,”said Colts coach Austin Weisgerber, whose squad closed out a late-night doubleheader against the Hounds Friday, though a score was unavailable by deadline. “It’s a hard learning experience but in Game 2 hopefully we can rebound from it.”

Cavan Kolody broke open an early pitchers’ duel when he followed up a pair of two-out walks with an RBI double in the bottom of the second inning. Payton Cox kept things rolling with an RBI on an infield throwing error then Kolody crossed on a botched pick-off attempt to give starting pitcher Ty Brooks some run support.

Notre Dame’s Bryden Pow responded with an RBI in the top of the third inning, but the Colts got it back when Wyatt Bergen laced an RBI triple into the right-centre field gap with two down in the fourth, then Ethan Boutkan stretched the lead to four with an RBI error on the next at-bat.

The Hounds pushed back when Curtis Wiebe sent a 2 RBI triple into right field with two gone in the fifth. While Brooks escaped the inning without any further damage and his Colts immediately matched the effort on a pair of walk-in runs in the fifth, things started to unravel in the sixth.

Brooks pitched his way into a bases-loaded jam with one out before leaving the hill in favour of Cole Rath — then Livingston stole away the lead after Pow cut the lead to three on an RBI error.

The Hounds went on to add 14 more runs while mowing through four of McCoy’s arms in a lengthy seventh inning. The Colts attempted to rally back in the bottom of the seventh — with Bergen driving in a run on a single and Boutkan drawing a walk to plate another — but they were unable to rebound from the double-digit deficit.

“We’ve got to have a little bit of a better compete level and be able to bear down with some of our plays in the field,”said Weisgerber. “Hopefully it’s a bit of a wake-up call, that you can’t just show up and expect to win, you’ve got to be able to compete from inning 1-to-7, to out 21.”

The setback leaves McCoy at 0-2 to start the SouthernAlberta High SchoolBaseball League season.

Official statistics were not available by deadline.

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