Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
BLOOMING PRAIRIE — The Lyle/Austin Pacelli baseball team started the season with a 9-1 loss to the Blooming Prairie Blossoms on Tuesday.
Erratic pitching was the main culprit in this non-conference loss for Lyle/Pacelli, although having five starters out of the lineup didn’t help matters on the road. Four players were gone on a Pacelli class trip, and a couple more came up missing due to illness.
"Had I known all these guys were going to be out, then we would’ve postponed this game," L/P coach Steve Baumann said. "I knew the four guys from Pacelli would be gone, but then two more came down sick and we didn’t know about it until the bus took off for Blooming Prairie. We literally had to throw people into positions they had never played before."
The Blossoms took a 3-0 lead after the first two innings, then things completely fell apart in the bottom of the third for L/P starting pitcher Cody Meyer. The Blossoms scored five runs in the third inning to chase Meyer from the mound.
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It was a rough start for the sophomore hurler from L/P as he walked six guys and also hit five batters in the setback. Meyer did have five strikeouts, but he put too many runners on base.
"Cody was getting frustrated with the strike zone, and it was rough first day for everybody," Baumann said. "Still, the kids didn’t play too bad considering half of the team was gone."
The lone run for the L/P Athletics came in the top of the fourth inning. Meyer doubled with two outs, then Jake Ehret walked to put a pair of runners on base.
Meyer next stole third, and later scored the only L/P run when Aaron Juenger hit a double. But the rally died when Ehret got thrown out at third base to end the inning.
L/P pitchers had a total of eight hit batters in the loss. Blooming Prairie only had four hits on the day, but it was more than enough with all of the free passes.
Lyle/Pacelli (0-1) is scheduled to open Southeast Conference play on Friday at Winona against Hope Lutheran.
Blooming Prairie 9, Lyle/Pacelli 1
Lyle/Pacelli 000 100 0 — 1 3 4
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Blooming Pr. 125 010 x — 9 4 2
Lyle/Pacelli: Cody Meyer 1-3, 2B, run; Jake Ehret 1-2, walk; Aaron Juenger 1-3, 2B, RBI. LP: Meyer 2 2/3 IP, 8 R, 2 H, 6 BB, 5 HB, 5 K.
Blooming Prairie: Elliot Herdina 1-2, 3 HBP, 3 runs; Brendan McCabe 1-2, walk, 2 HBP, run; J.J. Stenzel 1-3, RBI; Matt Zellmer 1-5, 2B, run, 2 RBI. WP: Collin McDonald 4 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 2 BB, 1 HB, 7 K.
