If they only didn’t keep score the first inning. 

That’s probably what the Becker Buzzards baseball team was thinking last Friday after it traveled to Clearwater to take on the River Cats and surrendered eight first inning runs en route to an 9-7 loss.

“Eight to zero after the first inning and then we settled in and only gave up one run for the remainder of the game,” said Kevin Krenz, who along with Brian Kolbinger served as co-managers for the game in Jason Baune’s absence. 

“We kept clawing our way back into it.”

Murphy’s Law ruled the bottom of the first for the Buzzards, as an untimely error and a hit by pitch cost them the early lead.  All eight runs were unearned, as starting pitcher Tanner Bakke survived the early onslaught and came back to pitch a very nice game the rest of the way including six strikeouts.  In fact, the River Cats managed just one more run along the way and had just two base runners in scoring position.

Nick Proshek provided a big spark in the first for the River Cats with a multi-RBI double, as Clearwater had eight hits in the first stanza.

Kolbinger helped the Buzzards get on the board in the third inning with a solid RBI single, while Deron Trovall scored on a Steve Newman double in the fourth inning for Becker.

Becker added four runs in the sixth inning on RBI singles by Matt Koester and Nick Allerson and Kolbinger’s second RBI of the game.  But it was as close as Becker would get.

For the River Cats, Cole Gueningsman  led the offensive effort with three hits, while teammate Jordan Picka added a pair of hits.

Kevin Krenz was named the Tri County Lumber player of the game for the Buzzards with his 2-for-3 performance.

It was the second loss of the season for the Buzzards who will travel to Menahga on Saturday (today) for a 2 p.m. game before taking on Urbank at 4 p.m.

Because of the covid shortened season, this year’s MSMABA state tournament is being seeded on last year’s results.  Therefore, the Buzzards already know that they will begin their title defense on August 15th in Fergus Falls when they take on Rosemount at 6:30 p.m.

The River Cats, meanwhile, were scheduled to open Sauk Valley tournament play Wednesday night in Big Lake as they played the Clear Lake Lakers.  The winner of that play-in game will take on the St. Joseph Joes in a three game series starting August 1st.