Cowboys growing into second town ball season

The Crystal Cowboys continued their second town ball season last week with a 6-0 loss to the Minneapolis Mudcats on June 11 at Parade Stadium.

The night started slow at bat for both teams, with the scorecard reading 0-0 through three innings. This was in part due to strong defensive work by both teams. Cowboys pitcher Samuel Bozyk was a confident presence early on to keep the Mudcats at bay along with good work at first and second base from Martin De La Paz and Jean Marcelino.

Minneapolis opened the game up in the fourth inning, first by handling some decent contact at bat from Phillip Ponce and Jelani Thomas, before scoring three runs of their own after an early out against the Mudcats. The Mudcats led 3-0.

The Cowboys resettled in the fifth with a quick kill by Bozyk, a catch at right field, and a tag at second base by Grant Proctor, but did not make the most of minimal contact at bat giving them their brightest moments.

Proctor won a long battle with the Mudcats pitcher in the top of the sixth to walk to first and later stole second, but without a clean RBI to bring him home, the Cowboys remained scoreless. The Mudcats added three runs of their own, despite some good work at second base and a deep catch in center field by Ben Nelson, to make it 6-0.

Crystal had one last shot to come back in the top of the seventh and had some hope with a walk to first by Jelani Thomas, who then made his way to third base. The Mudcats pitched out of trouble, however, and won 6-0.

The Crystal Cowboys will play two games the following week, traveling to play the Chaska Cubs on Wednesday, June 19, before hosting the Minneapolis Merchants on Friday, June 21.