BYERS — There were a lot of bad swings Thursday.
That’s no knock on the Limon and Byers lineups, but a credit to the pitching prowess of the Badgers’ Jason Brown and Bulldogs’ Jake Eikleberry.
In a contest in which the scoreless first five innings flew by in just over an hour, top-ranked Limon eventually eked out a 5-4 win against No. 6 Byers in a Class 2A Union Pacific League game.
Brown struck out nine to outduel the left-handed Eikleberry, who was a tough-luck loser after striking out 13.
“We picked him up after awhile,” said Limon first baseman Trent Dohe, whose solo homer in the sixth broke the scoreless tie. “He was good at mixing up the fastball and curveball, and he kept us off-balance a lot.”
Byers (4-3) entered the seventh up 2-1 after scoring a pair of unearned runs against Brown in the bottom of the sixth, but Eikleberry’s defense deserted him. The Bulldogs committed two errors and failed to convert two additional makable plays, including Dilan Yowell’s two-run single that capped the Badgers’ four-run frame.
“The difference was our inability to close out the game,” Byers coach David Dodge said. “The two errors opened the gates, and we just have to make sure we close out a game when we have a chance to.”
Ryan Imber hit a mammoth two-run homer for the Bulldogs in the bottom of the seventh, but it left Byers one run short. Brown, who allowed only three hits, then struck out the final two hitters to clinch it for the Badgers (6-1).
“This game was going pretty quick, but luckily we got some better at-bats and made some adjustments,” Limon coach Les Layton said. “We battle like this all the time. It seems like Limon and Byers just battle each other.”
Dohe credited the experience of his defending-champion teammates as a determining factor.
“It probably helped that we only lost two seniors last season, so we have quite a bit of the team back,” said Dohe, whose windblown popup in the seventh landed for the go-ahead RBI. “Most of the sophomores were on the championship team last year, so they know what the atmosphere is like and know how to get it done.”
Limon 000 001 4 — 5 7 1
Byers 000 002 2 — 4 3 4
Limon (ab-r-h-rbi) — Bre.Schmidt cf 2-1-0-0, Albers rf 4-1-2-0, Bra.Schmidt ss 4-1-0-1, T.Dohe 1b 4-1-2-2, Brown p 3-0-0-0, Yowell lf 4-0-1-2, Koehn 3b 3-0-1-0, Liggett c 3-0-0-0, C.Dohe dh 3-1-1-0, Thompson 2b 0-0-0-0. Totals 30-5-7-5.
Byers — Steitz 1b 3-1-0-0, Imber cf 4-2-2-2, Tameler rf 2-1-0-0, Dodge ss 4-0-1-0, Bilberry p 1-0-0-0, Martin 3b 2-0-0-1, Sutliff c 3-0-0-1, Roesh lf 3-0-0-0, Dean 2b 2-0-0-0, Shelley ph 1-0-0-0. Totals 25-4-3-4.
E — Bra.Schmidt, Dodge, Steitz, Martin, Dean. LOB — Limon 7, Byers 6. HR — T.Dohe (solo in sixth), Imber (one on in seventh). SB — Albers, Brown, C.Dohe. CS — T.Dohe.
Batteries — Brown and Liggett; Eikleberry and Sutliff. W — Brown (3-0). L — Eikleberry (0-1). T — 1:46.
