NEW ROCKFORD — The Rockets stormed back and nearly stunned the Nelson County/Midkota Chargers on Saturday.
An 8-1 NC/M lead became 8-8 in the fifth inning. But the Chargers (5-8) scored three runs in each of the final two innings, holding on to beat New Rockford-Sheyenne (8-6) by a score of 14-8 in New Rockford.
“I’m proud of them for kind righting the ship there and not letting it spiral too far,” Chargers head coach Logan Lund said. “I am still slightly upset. But that’s kind of how our season has went. We’ve played really well at times, and we seem to just maybe let our inexperience get the best of us at times. But finding a way to correct some things and score six runs in the last two innings there is huge.”
The Rockets’ shaky defense put them in a big hole to begin with. They committed 12 errors, unofficially, as a whole.
“Errors absolutely killed us right from the get-go,” NR-S head coach Dave Skogen said. “Just bad baseball, honestly. Gave it right back to them when we took the charge.”
The Chargers, in comparison, only made one error. And it came with two outs in the seventh.
“Pitching and defense is the strength of our team,” Lund said. “It has been all year. We’ve won a lot of low-scoring games, and this one’s kind of the opposite, but I’m glad to be on the right side of it.”
Four of the Rockets’ errors occurred in the first inning, as the Chargers went up 4-0 before an out was recorded.
Shortstop Thomas Allmaras committed three errors in the inning and five in the game.
“Very uncharacteristic,” Skogen said. “There’s some bad bounces; this infield is kind of choppy right now. Spring baseball, you always get some weird stuff. But yeah, just a rough day for a guy who makes those types of plays, usually.”
Two additional infield errors in the second and third allowed NC/M to extend its lead to 7-0.
Skogen held multiple meetings to try to calm his team down.
“Just trying to get them to focus, take a breath,” Skogen said. “Flush it. It’s a lot of the same stuff we’ve been dealing with all year. We’ve gotten off to terrible starts … Just the same message over and over and over. Hopefully, at some point it’s gonna stick.”
Freshman pitcher Caleb Rainsberry held the Rockets’ offense in check over the first three innings. He stranded a walk in the first inning and a two-out triple by Jax Demester in the second. NR-S got on the board with an RBI single by Easton Simon in the bottom of the third, scoring Allmaras, who had doubled, to make it 7-1.
Kason Nass settled in on the mound for the Rockets, pitching four innings. NC/M added a run in the fourth after getting three two-out baserunners and scoring on a throwing error by the catcher.
Rainsberry hit the first two batters in the bottom of the fourth. Lund pulled him there, at 55 pitches.
“He’s been a really good player for us all over the field this year, and at times has struggled to be in the zone. But today was really good,” Lund said. “Maybe just ran out of gas a little earlier today.”
Lakin Ronningen took over and had trouble throwing strikes.
Vinnie Ruppell and Nass drew free passes, each driving in a run, before Allmaras smacked a long single that brought in two more.
“The issue for Lakin is probably some on my end, too, for not having him pitch as much as we would like,” Lund said. “Not every day is your day, and you’ve got to figure some stuff out on the go. And he wasn’t able to do that today, but we’ll correct it moving forward.”
Ronningen hit the first two batters in the bottom of the fifth to get himself in another jam. Demester hit an RBI double, a run scored on a wild pitch and Allmaras — making up for his errors in the field — tied the game with an RBI single.
Allmaras went 4-for-5 out of the leadoff spot. The senior has also hit three home runs this season.
“He’s a legit hitter,” Skogen said. “When he stays within himself, patient and doesn’t chase pitches, he’s one of the toughest outs in the state.”
Jaxon Simon pitched the final three innings for NR-S. He cruised through a five-pitch fifth, but an error, a single and a walk loaded the bases in the sixth. Two runs scored on a wild pitch, and another scored on a two-base error.
The Chargers, despite all that had gone wrong in the middle innings, jumped back in front, 11-8.
They added insurance in the seventh, getting an RBI single with two outs from Cooper Hovdenes. Two more scored on another NR-S error.
After Ronningen grinded through two innings on the mound for NC/M, Landon Sundeen took over. Sundeen is primarily a hitter and first baseman.
That didn’t stop him from pitching two scoreless innings to finish the game.
He walked two batters but didn’t permit any NR-S hits.
“Landon, he’s not a big arm for us. But he might have to start being one now, right?” Lund said, sharing a laugh with Sundeen, who happened to be cleaning up his stuff nearby after the game. “Throwing the ball over the plate is the biggest priority. And if you can do that, you’re gonna get outs at this level.”
The Chargers were happy to take Saturday’s contest after falling on the wrong end of some close games earlier this season. They sit in fifth place in Region 2.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Lund said. “But for the most part, you’re really competitive in the losses. You’ve just got to find a way to get one or two more hits and make maybe one more play on defense. And we’re 5-8 now — we could very easily be 8-5. … You’re not gonna always win the close games. You figure out how to do that going into the tournament. And once you get there, nothing else matters.”
NR-S, as of Saturday, is tied for third place in Region 3. The Rockets have a big game on Tuesday, May 12 against Valley City, the team they’re tied with.
“We still have an outside shot at the two seed,” Skogen said. “We lost a couple games, in my opinion, we never should have lost, early in the region season. But we’re playing better. We’ve been hitting the ball better. We’ve got to be consistent. We’ve got to stop this early bleeding in the games. We’ve made too many mental mistakes. Just need to play better baseball.”
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