The Bellmont Braves let one rotten half inning spoil an otherwise good night of baseball as they fell to the visiting Bluffton Tigers 4-2.
The Braves twice left the bases loaded without scoring in an inning, missing out on a chance to break the game open in the bottom of the fourth and again in the seventh.
“I wouldn’t blame it on the three-run inning,” coach Tom Montgomery said after the game. “I think it was more the way we looked at the plate. We let too many opportunities get away and we really had a poor day in terms of plate discipline.”
The Braves struck out seven times against Bluffton pitching, with two of them coming in the seventh against Braxton Betancourt.
Bellmont led off the third with a walk by Keagan Martin, who was then bunted over by Gavin Krull. That set up pinch runner Daniel Vogel to score when Andrew James grounded out to the right side because of Vogel’s alert base running on a passed ball during Krull’s at-bat.
Bluffton turned a pair of sacrifices into a run to tie it in the fourth, but it was the fifth inning that really ended up biting the Braves. After leaving those bases loaded, Bellmont starter Eli Laurent, who struck out eight on the night, got a K for the first out of the inning. Three doubles and one walk later, it was 4-1 Bluffton and the Braves could not recover.
James led the Braves with two hits.
The team will make up the postponed game from Monday against Blackhawk Christian this Friday at the Bellmont diamond.
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