By HUNTER O. LYLE
BRADFORD, PA – Facing one of the toughest teams in the league, early stumbles left the Bradford Legion baseball team scrambling for answers as they suffered their first loss of the season, falling to DuBois Legion 6-1.
DuBois struck early and often, capitalizing off Post 108’s early mistakes. Through their first three batters, DuBois loaded the diamonds with a single and back-to-back walks. Despite striking out in their next man up, a single from Maddix Clark put them on the scoreboard. A Bradford passed ball would add another run to their lead before a sacrifice grounder grew their early lead to three. Putting another man on base with a hit batter and having another on third, an error allowed another run in, leaving Bradford looking up at a 4-0 lead after the first frame.
““It was just a rough start. There was a couple passed balls, a ball hit deep that was close and we almost made a play on,” said Bradford head coach Jim Henry. “It was just a couple passed balls really on walks.”
Stepping into the batter’s box, Post 108 struggled to make a dent in the deficit. Over the next five frames, DuBois’ ace, Craig Mays, fanned batter after batter as he made his way to a total of 14 Ks through five innings on the mound.
Lucas Wallace takes a swing in the batter’s box during Bradford’s first loss of the season. During three appearances at the plate, Wallace produced one hit. | Photo by Hunter O. Lyle
“We just struggled to hit the ball today,” said Henry. “We watched a lot of pitches. We watched way too many pitches today.”
Meanwhile, DuBois added to their lead in the third with an RBI single with a man on first and second before scoring their sixth run in the sixth inning from another passed ball. Finally in the bottom of the same frame, Bradford broke through.
Second basemen Lucas Wallace makes a throw to Nik Manroe on first during Bradford Legion’s loss to DuBois on Sunday. | Photo by Hunter O. Lyle
Ty Buchholtz reached first with a lead-off single before being joined on base by an Ethan Obergfell walk. Buchholtz eventually made his way to third on a steal before closing the distance to home on a DuBois error. However, that would be the extent of Post 108’s action. After dispatching DuBois in three in the top of the seventh, Ben Woodhouse opened the final at bat with a single. From there, Post 108 fell flat with three consecutive outs via strikeout, a fielder’s choice at second and a pickle tag out at first, sealing Bradford’s first loss of the season.
Buchholtz led the way for Post 108 with two hits and a score in three appearances while Woodhouse (2-for-3), Lucas Wallace (1-for-3) and Nik Manroe (1-for-3) rounded out Bradford’s six total hits.
Post 108 will see DuBois again on Saturday, June 21 where they will look for redemption and revenge in the midst of a double-header.
“I think we can definitely hang with them, we just had a rough start. Other than that it was a close ball game,” said Henry. “We just have to play a little harder.”
AT BRADFORD
R H E
DuBois 401 001 0 6 5 1
Bradford 000 001 0 1 6 1
DuBois: Mays (14 SO, 0 BB), Limrick (6) (3 SO, 1 BB) and Bloom
Bradford: Buchholtz (5 SO, 2 BB), Haviland (5) (3 SO, 0 BB) and Lama
