THORNTON — Five Fort Lupton errors led to nine unearned runs for Skyview in the Wolverines’ 16-6, six-inning win April 18 on Skyview’s field.
But FLHS coach Brandon O’Field saw some good things.
“For the first time in a few games, we started hitting the ball,” O’Field said. “You have to give credit to them. They hit the ball. We made a lot of mistakes to allow them to get those 16 runs. Manny (starting pitcher Manny Ledezma) pitched well. He definitely deserved better.”
Ledezma went 2-for-2, scored twice and drove in a run at the plate. But the Bluedevils’ shaky defense allowed four unearned runs to cross the plate in the first inning and five more to score in the fifth.
“We could have gotten out of that (first) inning with one run, or maybe none,” O’Field said. “That has to be the emphasis with these guys is making plays. We were a little younger than I thought. It’s a learning process.”
Fort Lupton crawled back to within 9-6 in the fifth inning. Ledezma walked to force in a run. Alex Reckard singled home another. But the Bluedevils, as was the case with other scoring threats, couldn’t find the key base hit to extend the inning or bring home another run.
“That’s something that’s plagued us all year,” O’Field said. “That’s been a trend. To some extent, that’s youth. They are learning in those situations. They were younger than we thought. We’ve got some young guys playing in certain positions.”
In the last of the fifth, the Wolverines erupted for six runs. Three more miscues didn’t help the Bluedevils’ cause, nor did RBI base hits from Marcus Gomez, Ricardo Balderrarma and Jose Esquivel.
Colton McCutchan was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Reckard had two hits and an RBI. Skyview’s Austin Braswell, who was the winning pitcher, helped his cause at the plate with two hits and three RBIs. Kevin Chavez had five hits and drove in two runs.
“We battled back,” O’Field said. “We just dug ourselves too big a hole. That was defensively. That had nothing to do with our pitching. Pitching was the best thing we did. We’re still doing a good job of being aggressive on the bases. That’s something we push pretty hard. We had better plate appearances. We didn’t always get the results we wanted. The approach was good.”
Contact Sports Editor Steve Smith at ssmith@metrowestnewspapers.com.