BELOIT — Beloit Senior Legion manager Brad Farrell admitted before the season that finding a way to overcome the loss of 13 players from last season’s squad was going to be a daunting task.
This season’s Bandits made sure to let everyone know that they are well prepared to tackle that duty head on, even if it means some growing pains along the way, as Beloit was competitive in a pair of games in Saturday’s opening weekend tournament in Janesville but ultimately fell 9-8 to Middleton and 5-4 to Janesville.
The tournament held at Riverside Park is typically a three-day event, but it was shortened to just Saturday after two teams dropped out.
“This weekend said a tremendous amount about our team,” Farrell said. “I said at the beginning of the year that I don’t need to worry about the gelling part of this, because they were all pretty familiar with each other. If we had our sticks going (against Janesvile), I think we would have beat them. This early in the season, seeing these guys fight and battle and crawl their way back into stuff and not giving up is a great sign to come.”
The loss against Janesville featured mostly quiet bats from the Bandits, something that Farrell knew could be a factor after a couple weeks of a dead period for the players in between the high school and Legion season.
“We were really not productive offensively,” the manager said. “Besides one inning where we had tons of walks, we got on the scoreboard that way. Those first game jitters and the bats not being up to speed, that two week layoff without doing any practices or anything like that hurts.
“But, this is summertime. After the high school season, I wanted to basically give these guys kind of a week or two weeks to breathe and, and enjoy summer a little bit before we dive head first back into baseball.”
Farrell was also happy about the work he got on the mound from his pitchers against Janesville.
“Andy Buckley started out and he did really well,” he continued. “And then, Carston Jacobson came in and finished it out. Overall, it was a tight game against Janesville. There was maybe one miscue that kind of hurt us a little bit, but it was a good, hard fought battle.”
The cold bats were present for six innings against Middleton, which scored six runs in the second and held a 9-0 lead heading into the top of the seventh.
But the Bandits worked great at-bats in the final frame and exploded for eight runs, nearly coming all the way back before a strikeout stopped the rally in its tracks.
Beloit drew four walks, three with the bases loaded, Hayden Frey had an RBI single and groundout while Brayden Ward smacked a one-run single in the rally attempt.
Ward and Frey each had two hits while Piccione had one and a run scored as the bottom three hitters in Beloit’s lineup combined to go 5-for-11 with three RBI and three runs against the Cardinals.
“That’s a nice thing to see is that when the top is struggling a bit, the bottom is starting to pick things up,” Farrell said. “Brayden Ward was hot at the plate, he did very well. And then our defense in that second game was really good. Jayden Piccione, he snagged one, full layout, and caught one out in center field. Having him in the outfield along with Owen West, Dustin Foss and Hayden Frey — those guys are really good outfielders. That’s what makes it hard for me when I’m doing the lineup, I could put any one of those outfielders out there and we don’t lose anything.”
Farrell was complimentary of the defensive work all weekend, and he praised Dustin Foss for his work against Middleton.
Foss allowed just one hit and one earned run with two walks while striking out four in four innings to help keep Beloit’s comeback within reach.
“Dustin completely shut them down, which was really nice to see,” Farrell said. “He was working all his pitches very well, kept them off balance and was able to pitch the rest of the game for us. He’s one of those other kids that whenever the coach asks for, he’ll do it. He knows that when he gets in the game, he’s going to do his job.”
The Bandits will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to play Fort Atkinson at 7:30 p.m. before returning to the YMCA Youth Sports Complex on Wednesday for a rematch against Janesville at 6 p.m.
“We’re planning on practicing (Monday), and continuing our streak of getting better at the plate,” Farrell said. “We’re going after it.”
• LINESCORES:
MIDDLETON 9, BELOIT 8
Beloit 000 000 8 — 8 6 1
Midd 161 001 — 9 5 1
Leading hitters: Beloit, Ward 2x4, 1 Run, 1 RBI; Frey 2x4, 1 Run, 2 RBI; Piccione 1x3, 1 Run; West 1x1, 1 Run. Midd, Feinberg 2x2, 1 Run, 2 RBI; Lucchesi 1x1, 1 RBI; Esser 1x2, 2 RBI, Look 0x1, 1 Run, 1 RBI; D’Onofrio 1x1, 1 Run.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Beloit, Halon (L) 2.0-4-8-8-4-1, Foss 4.0-1-1-1-2-4. Midd, O’Connor (W) 5.0-3-0-0-3-6, Studee (1.0-2-4-4-1-0), Tompach (0.1-0-3-3-2-0), Guerrero (S) 0.2-1-1-1-1-1.
JANESVILLE 5, BELOIT 4
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