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Otter 12U Maroon Team Loses Twice to West Fargo

By Kevin Pearson, 06/27/19, 1:45PM CDT

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Runs were hard to come by on Tuesday night as the Fergus Falls Otters 12U Maroon baseball team was swept by a talented West Fargo team on Field 5, 11-1 and 3-1.  

Game one saw the Otters fall behind and never catch up. The visitors scored early as West Fargo capitalized on a couple Otter fielding errors to jump out to a 3-0 lead after one inning.  West Fargo added to their lead with three more runs in their half of the third.  They added to their lead with single runs in the 4th and 5th innings before the Otters scored their first run in the bottom of the fifth.  Aikhem Bethel led off the inning with a sharp single to left.  Brock Scheuerman followed with a double down the left field line.  After a walk to Jack Ratz loaded the bases, Jacob Fronning plated the lone Otter run with a sacrifice fly to right field.  Bethel, Scheuerman, and Preston Berge were the only Otters to record a hit.  Carston Fronning started on the mound and pitched four innings.  He gave up seven runs, but only two of them were earned.  He allowed eleven hits, walked only one, and struck out three.  Jacob Fronning pitched one inning.  He allowed four runs (three earned), on two hits, while walking four and striking out one.  Sean Berge pitched the last inning.  He didn't allow any runs, didn't allow a hit, walked two, and struck out one.

Game two was a tremendous battle as both teams threw strikes and fielded the ball extremely well as the Otters lost a much closer game.  The Otters got on the board first in this one in the bottom of the second.  Bethel hit a one out triple to right center field, and he would score two pitches later as the West Fargo pitcher uncorked a wild pitch.  West Fargo answered back with a run of their own in the top of the third.  The score would remain tied until the sixth thanks to a great relay play by the visitors in the fifth.  Bethel tripled to the right field fence.  He was thrown out at the plate trying to stretch it into an inside the park home run after two perfect throws by the right fielder and second baseman.  West Fargo plated two runs in the sixth to finish the scoring for the evening.  Bethel and Jaden Miller led the Otters at the plate as they both had two hits.  Scheuerman and Ratz each had one hit.  Bethel threw a great game on the mound.  He pitched 5+ innings.  He gave up three runs, five hits, walked two, hit two, and struck out six.  Parker Thielke came into the game in the sixth with two runners on.  His line was no runs, no hits, walked one, and he hit two batters.  He worked through the wildness, settled down, and finished the inning.

"It was a tale of two completely different games,” commented Head Coach Kevin Pearson.  “In game one, we didn't make all the necessary plays.  In game two, we did.  The boys were into that game mentally a lot more than the first one for whatever reason.  We faced some really good pitching tonight, so hits and runs were hard to come by tonight.  In those types of games, it is essential to make every play you can, and the boys are starting to understand that more and more."

The Maroon team is now 5-11 on the season.