After just three losses in 26 games to start the season, the Blair Senior Legion baseball team lost two in a row Sunday and Monday.
Coach James Bilslend said there's nothing to worry about.
“It's just, literally, baseball,” he said Monday after a 4-2 Eastern Nebraska Baseball League semifinals loss to Waverly at Elkhorn Mount Michael.
There's good days in the sport and bad days, the coach explained.
“It's a long season when you start in March and here we are now in July,” Bilslend said. “It's one of those things. It happens.”
Waverly led from the fourth inning on Monday after it broke a 1-1 tie with two runs during the bottom half against Post 154 starting pitcher Tanner Jacobson. Lee Chavez-Lara had plated the Bears' first run of the game during the top half.
Blair later pulled within 3-2 in the fifth inning when Greyson Kay walked and Brady Brown scored him while hitting into a Waverly error. The one-run deficit, though, was as close as Coach Bilslend's team would get across the last few innings.
Chavez-Lara singled and Dylan Swanson doubled in the sixth frame, but a strikeout and a pop out ended Post 154's scoring threat altogether.
“You need to not try to take so big of hacks at the ball,” Bilslend said when asked about the two runners on, one-out situation. “We need to try to hit the ball the other way, hit the ball up the middle.”
It didn't happen and the Bears lost their second-straight game after a Sunday afternoon home loss to Columbus.
The Blair coach said the team just needs to move forward.
“The biggest thing is, 'How do you come back tomorrow?'” Bilslend said.
The Post 154 Seniors were scheduled to play Wednesday against South Omaha, Thursday against Omaha Gross and next on Saturday at Fort Calhoun.
“Somebody rang the bell,” Bilslend continued. “Do you answer it?”
Columbus tops Post 154
The Blair Seniors managed just four hits Sunday, too, falling 7-0 to Columbus at Vets Field.
Brown singled twice, while Nate Wachter and Swanson notched one apiece during just Post 154's fourth loss of the season.
Pitcher Lucas Matejka had seven strikeouts across five innings in defeat.
Columbus, meanwhile, scored five fourth inning runs and one apiece during the fifth and seventh frames, respectively.
POST 154 SENIOR LINE SCORES
Monday
Waverly 4, Blair 2
BLAIR (23-5) 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 — 2 6 1
WAVERLY 0 1 0 2 1 0 X — 4 9 1
Sunday
Columbus 7, Blair 0
COLUMBUS 0 0 0 5 1 0 1 — 7 7 1
BLAIR (23-4) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 4 1
Blair Juniors start area play today
The Blair Junior Legion baseball team starts Area 3 Tournament play today at Vets Field.
The Post 154 Bears host Omaha Roncalli at 8 p.m. after Schuyler faces Valparaiso at 2 p.m. and Fort Calhoun plays West Point at 5. The tournament then continues through July 16.
Coach Howie Brewer's Blair Junior squad most recently split a Omaha Creighton Prep doubleheader on Monday, winning 11-9 and losing 8-3.
