Ottawa stays hot with 9-5 win over Hall

OTTAWA — After some sloppy play defensively left the Ottawa and Hall baseball squads tied after three innings of Tuesday contest at King Field, the Pirates put things together - especially with the bats and especially with two outs.

Ottawa collected four run-scoring hits with two away in its final three innings at bat to post a 9-5 victory over the Red Devils.

The win improved the Pirates to 7-1 on the season, while Hall dropped to 5-5.

“We talk all the time about having toughness, grit and doing whatever it takes in the moment you’re in,” Ottawa coach Levi Ericson said. “The guys really showed that today with a number of really good at-bats in tight spots.

“Our first five games we were averaging around 10 strikeouts per game and not coming through in two-out situations. But the last three games we’ve had five or fewer (strikeouts). These guys are doing a much better job of shortening their swings with two strikes and also really battling to get runners home with two outs.”

Each team scored a single tally in the second, Hall on an error off a double steal and Ottawa on a two-out RBI double by Harry Carretto.

Hall used a sacrifice fly by Jack Jablonski, an RBI triple by Jaxon Pinter and his back end of another double steal to lead 4-1.

“(On the double steals) we were just looking to score runs any way we could,” Hall coach Tom Keegan said. “We weren’t overthinking anything in those situations, just trying to put things in motion. We didn’t swing the bats that bad today and ran the bases well, but we just couldn’t overcome the runs we gave away in the field.”

Ottawa tied the game in its half on a two-run error and a sac fly by Colin Fowler.

“Making routine plays on a routine basis has been a bugaboo for us so far this season,” said Keegan, his club committing five of the games’ eight miscues. “These first 10 games we’ve been prone to errors and throwing the baseball around, and it’s hurt us like it did today.

“We don’t necessarily have the shut-down type of pitching that allows us to work around giving teams free bases and runs. We also don’t really have the type of offense to make up for giving teams big innings because of mistakes.”

In the fourth, Ottawa used two-out RBI singles from Jace Veith and Jackson Mangold to make it 6-4.

Hall got one back in the fifth when Pinter doubled and scored on a base hit by Braden Curran.

The hosts then added on three runs in the sixth on a sac fly by Mangold, an error and a hit by Fowler.

Fowler (5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K) earned the win on the mound with Colt Bryson (2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K) shutting the door.

“Colin and Bryson threw the ball well for us,” Ericson said. “They were both consistently around the strike zone. When you do that good things normally happen for you.”

Clayton Fusinetti (2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K), Jack Curran (2 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 2 ER) and Geno Ferrari (2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB) all shared mound duties for the Red Devils. Pinter and Jack Curran led Hall with two hits each.

Jacob Rosetto and Jaxon Cooper each had two hits for Ottawa, Mangold and Fowler two RBIs apiece and Veith scored three runs and reached base all four plate appearances, including being hit by a pitch three times.

“The last few years when we’d get down in the score, we’d hang our heads and just not fight back like we should have,” Veith, a senior, said. “This year this team just has the mentality that we are going to keep pushing no matter what.

“The first couple of innings today weren’t our best, but we talked about getting things back on track and then went out there and played better.”

Ottawa is scheduled to host Oswego on Wednesday, while Hall is off until Saturday when it will host Orion for a doubleheader at Kirby Park.