Both the Fort Calhoun and Plattsmouth Senior Legion baseball teams found themselves in hot water a few times Tuesday night.
While Post Fifty-Six melted under the pressure at home, Zig Drywall stood strong for a 3-0 road win. Coach Jerry Wellwood's team is now 12-18 overall.
“I don't why, but I like going into sticky situations,” Post 348 relief pitcher Josh Miranda said. “I love battling.”
The right-hander struck out seven Plattsmouth batters filling in for starter Colin Bolay, who sat down 10 with strikes. Both pitchers held up in tight spots.
“We've definitely had some games where we end up messing it up at the end,” catcher Chase Premer said. “But, this time, we've been preaching about this game all week because it's our only one.”
With three runs during the top of the seventh and final frame, the Pioneers started and ended the holiday week 1-0.
“That's the first time I've allowed zero runs,” Bolay said after 4 2/3 innings on the mound. “So, I'm happy with it. Ten Ks, zero runs.”
Post Fifty-Six threatened scoring multiple times throughout Tuesday's game, though. In the first inning, it loaded the bases with one out before Calhoun's starter ended the frame with back-to-back strikeouts.
“When it gets to a situation like that, the most important thing for me is slowing down the moment,” Bolay said.
Coach Wellwood visited the mound to calm his pitcher and succeeded. Bolay said he can get “worked up sometimes,” but used a strong fastball delivery to get through it.
The pitcher did it again in the fourth frame when Plattsmouth produced a leadoff triple and loaded the bases without an out. Bolay stayed in after another mound visit, struck out the next two batters and watched as a teammate tracked down a foul pop for the third out.
“Trusting the guys behind me, and just doing the best that I could and staying focused is just what I could do,” the pitcher said.
Miranda later substituted in during the fifth frame, stopping two more base runners from scoring with a strikeout.
JT Mlnarik hit an infield single and Jordan Back walked for Zig Drywall during the next half inning, but the game remained scoreless until the seventh with Premer first up to bat.
“Jerry always preaches that the leadoff man is always the most important,” the catcher said. “Kenny (Wellwood) went up there and hit a double off of the wall (during the third inning) and we couldn't put him in, but I knew the second time around we'd be able to do it.”
Premer started off the final frame with his own double before Landon Bernasek stepped onto the field to run for him. From there, though, Plattsmouth put the next two Calhoun batters down.
“Obviously, we got a little nervous once we got those two strikeouts, but we came up there and did our job,” Premer said. “We watched the pitches we needed to watch and we ended up getting it done.”
Wellwood walked next before Sam Genoways was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Miranda, who didn't have to do anything. Bernasek, Wellwood and Genoways all wound up scoring on high passed balls off of the Post Fifty-Six catcher's mitt.
“We gained a lot of momentum,” Miranda said.
The 3-0 lead was more than enough run support for the pitcher to close out the victory.
“I had a little pillow to sit on,” he said, cracking a smile at his word choice.
The Fort Calhoun Seniors next play 8 p.m. Monday at Ralston.
Juniors pick up win
The Fort Calhoun Junior Legion baseball team earned its first win of the season Sunday during the final day of the Battle at the Fort Tournament.
Post 348 topped the Falls City Blue Storm 6-1 despite falling behind 1-0 during the top of the first inning. From there, the Pioneers scored once during the bottom half and earned the lead for good during the bottom of the second frame.
On Tuesday, though, Calhoun lost at Plattsmouth, 17-4.
POST 348 SENIOR LINE SCORE
Tuesday
Fort Calhoun 3, Plattsmouth 0
FC (12-18) 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 — 3 4 0
PLATTS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 3 2
