Steers drop season-opener at home to Springtown

The Steers baseball team officially opened their season Monday, Feb. 19 but it ended on a negative note as they took a loss to Springtown 6-2.

In a game where the hits were few and far between, Graham was bitten by errors which led to five of Springtown’s six runs coming as unearned. Other than the fielding mistakes, the Steers played a solid game despite the unwanted outcome.

“(The Steers) battled, we have a couple of things go our way, it might (change) the outcome and be a different game,” head coach Allen McGee said.”...I thought the pitching was great. I thought we battled at the plate…and I thought we did really well in some areas. Obviously, we have to clean up the defense.”

Graham committed five errors in the game as opposed to just one from Springtown. The Steers outhit the Porcupines as Graham recorded two hits while Springtown only had one. But the mistakes kept the visitors’ innings alive and helped them bring their guys around for runs.

The home team got on the board first in the second inning when junior Colter Johnson led off with a hard single into left field.

A couple batters later, junior and starting pitcher Ryder Taylor laid down a bunt which was fielded poorly by Springtown’s third baseman.

The throw to first went into the outfield and Johnson managed to score all the way from first base while Taylor cruised into second and Graham had a 1-0 lead.

Graham’s lead didn’t last long, however, as Springtown answered back with two runs in the top of the third inning thanks to a walk, the second of Graham’s errors and a sacrifice fly. The Porcupines had taken a 2-1 lead without recording an official hit in the game to that point.

Springtown tacked on two more runs in the fifth inning and another in their half of the sixth to go up 5-1. Johnson’s second-inning single was still Graham’s only hit in the game.

In the Steers’ half of the sixth inning, they closed the gap by adding on another run beginning with a leadoff single to left field from junior Bruin Wright. A couple of timely groundouts moved Wright over to third, and he scored on a wild pitch during the next at-bat to make it 5-2.

It wasn’t until Springtown’s first batter of the seventh inning that the Porcupines recorded their first official hit in the game. That runner came around to be the one earned run that Graham allowed in the game and it made the score how the game ended at 6-2.

“I was proud of (my players) the way they competed. They were being good teammates to one another; the pitchers did awesome,” McGee said. “So kind of reiterating myself that everybody did a part. We just got to play catch — the simplest part of the game. We just have to play catch when the ball gets put in play, but we'll be there. We've done this a long time and this is all about reps with Graham kids and we're gonna get there.”

Graham will be in tournaments over the next couple of weeks as they compete in a tournament at Clyde from Thursday, Feb. 22 through Saturday, Feb. 24 and then the ACS tournament Feb. 29-March 2.