Bears baseball piecing things together

English Valleys faced some tough competition to open their season, playing against Sigourney and then Keota, both of whom have the ability bat around. EV fell into a quick hole which continued to grow against Keota on May 23. The Bears were able to get on the board, but it wasn’t enough as they fell 1-11.

    The Bears turned to Cooper Andreassen to give them a good start on the mound, his first in his junior year and one of three junior starters. He got into some trouble early by giving up four runs throughout the first couple innings, but also pitched out of some situations to limit the damage. He made it through 5 2/3 innings, giving up six runs but also striking out six in the process.

    “We knew they were going to put the ball in play, Keota has been a hitting team for the past couple years,” EV coach Jeremy Thomas said. “The thing that concerned me was the number of walks issued before they got their hits. Instead those singles or doubles turned into one run singles or two run doubles and you can’t win doing things like that.”

    He did help his own cause by recording one of the teams’ four hits on the day and stole a base. Tanner Mihal, Jacob Glandon and Kaden Hall each recorded a hit, while Glandon and Beau Flander also stole one base apiece.

    “We have some good team speed, but we have to get on base to use it,” Thomas said. “In the beginning and near the end of the game we battled. We need to keep getting better each day, so we can eliminate some of those middle runs and little errors. Those unearned runs are killing us right now.”

    Mihal was brought in to replace Andreassen late in the fifth inning. He closed out the game from there, allowing two hits and one run to score with 42 pitches, also striking out one.

    Bears leaders: Cael Hester – 1 run, Jacob Glandon – 1 RBI, Cooper Andreassen – 6 Ks

    The Bears hoped to rebound and put more of the pieces together when they faced Belle Plaine on May 25.