Errors and walks hurt Bowling Green School in a 13-7 loss to Central Private in the opening game of a best-of-three series at home Tuesday.
Bowling Green coach Justin Garcia said the team just didn’t catch the ball or throw it very well defensively.
“(Central Private) scored 10 runs with two outs,” Garcia said, after the game Tuesday. “We had at least eight errors. It’s hard to beat a good team when you make eight errors. I thought our at-bats were good though. We competed at the plate. I mean, it is what it is, baseball. We’ve got two big ones left and we’re going to go there, compete and see what happens.”
The Bucs also walked five batters and hit one.
Bowling Green’s offense was led by Casey Burge, who hit home runs No. 5 and 6. He tallied four RBIs.
The Bucs never led in Tuesday’s game.
Central Private got out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning.
Cole Birdsong walked to lead off and moved to third on Gabe Spedale’s hit-and-run single to right field. Parker Toural recorded a sacrifice fly to plate Birdsong with the game’s first run. After the second out, Kaleb Fontenot and Beau Powers drove home Spedale and Fontenot with an RBI single and RBI double, respectively, to make it 3-0.
Bowling Green got tallied single runs in the first and second innings to pull within one.
Cade Knight singled with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch. He scored on Burge’s RBI single.
Mitchell Lott began the second-inning rally with a one-out single to left. Hunter Wilkinson was next and he split the left field gap for a double, moving Lott to third. After the second out, Cameron Bell hit an RBI single to centerfield, sending Lott home and making it a 3-2 game.
It stayed that way until the fourth inning when Central Private scored three runs and took advantage of three Buccaneers’ errors.
The first two hitters were retired and then Peyton Toural singled to right. Birdsong reached on a miscue. Spedale then sent Toural home with a run-scoring single for a 4-2 lead and Birdsong moved to third, but Spedale attempted to reach second on the throw home. The peg to second was overthrown and into centerfield. Birdsong scored to make it 5-2 and Spedale went to third.
Parker Toural was next and he reached on an error, scoring courtesy runner Ben Kolb for a four-run lead at 6-2.
It stayed that way until the fifth when Burge got ahold of a pitch and hit it high and deep to straightaway centerfield. This one had some serious hangtime and went over the wall for a solo home run and Bowling Green was back within three at 6-3.
Central Private countered with a run in the sixth.
Spedale reached on an error with two outs and moved to second on the play before later scoring on a wild pitch to make it 7-3.
The Bucs came back with two runs in their half of the sixth.
Rece Dillon singled with one out, Ben Hicks got hit by a pitch and Wilkinson singled to load the bases. Later in the inning, the Buccaneers scored two runs off of a wild pitch. Dillon scored on the wild pitch, but the ball rolled toward the first base dugout after the ricochet off the backstop. Nobody was covering home and Hicks, who was on second before the pitch and moved to third on the wild pitch, took off for the plate. It was a race between him and the catcher for home and Hicks won, pulling the Buccaneers within two runs at 7-5.
But Central Private broke the game open in the seventh with six runs on three hits and two Bucs’ errors.
Powers began the frame by getting hit. Adam Steudlein singled. After the first out, Peyton Toural singled to load the bases for Birdsong, who came up with that might have been the biggest hit of the game. Birdsong hit a bases-clearing three-run double down the left field line. Powers, Steudlein and Toural all scored to make it 10-5.
Spedale followed with a walk, and Parker Toural struck out. A third-strike wild pitch allowed him to reach, but a throwing error allowed Birdsong and Spedale to score for a 12-5 lead. Toural scored when Mike Friedman reached on an error. It was 13-5 after 6.5 innings.
Bowling Green scored two runs in the seventh.
Knight singled and Burge absolutely crushed a pitch way back and gone to centerfield for a two-run homer. That made it 13-7, but the Buccaneers could get no closer.
Bowling Green and Central Private cap off the series Friday, May 3 with game two of the series set for 5 p.m., and if necessary, game three to follow.