Recap
Burnsville, MN — The Blaze bats came alive tonight, out-hitting the visiting Shakopee Sabres 11-6. But in the end, a bad first inning doomed the Blaze to a hard fought loss, falling to Shakopee at Alimagnet Park 5-4.
Ethan Voss started on the hill, and ran into early trouble with a walk and single to start the game. After a flyout, a slow roller infield single loaded the bases. An error on another slow grounder scored one run, and then a sacrifice fly plated another. A double steal brought in another run, followed by a wild pitch to make it 4-0. The fifth, and final run scored on a walk, a stolen base, and an infield bad hop single. There wasn't a hard hit in the inning, but it left the Blaze with a big hole to climb out of. And credit to the Blaze, they nearly did.
The Blaze got the scoring started in the 3rd on a Kade Bowar walk, an errant pickoff attempt that moved him to 3rd, and scored on a Ben Meuser hard hit infield single. Burnsville had a rally going in the 4th as well, loading the bases thanks to a Connor Quimby walk, and back to back singles by Asher Giese and Zach LaMotte. But a fielders choice and a ground out ended the threat. The Blaze did break through in the 5th, as Meuser reached 2nd on a wind blown sky pop to left that fell in, and he hustled into second base. Jonah Dawson traded places with him on a long double to left center to make it 5-2. Pinch hitter Nick Hughes then delivered with an infield single to put runners at the corners. Luke Trussell lined a base hit to right to score Dawson. LaMotte then ripped a double down the left field line to plate Hughes. That got the Blaze to within 1 run. Unfortunately the Blaze weren't able to get anything going in the last two innings, losing 5-4.
Ethan Voss went 6 innings, giving up only 1 earned run on 5 hits, 2 walks, 1 hit batsman and 5 Ks. He really settled in after the first inning, retiring 13 straight at one point. Owen Geegan pitched the last inning, yielding no runs on 1 hit.
The Blaze had four players with multi-hit games. Co-captain LaMotte was 2 for 3, with a double and RBI, Trussell was 2 for 4 with an RBI, Giese was 2 for 3, and Meuser was 2 for 4, with a double and a run. Dawson was 1 for 4 with a double, run and RBI. Hughes was 1 for 1 with a run. Voss also had a base hit, and Bowar walked twice and scored a run.
The Blaze (1-6) are back in action on Wednesday, as they travel to Rosemount for a 4:30 game.