The Tioga Bulldogs baseball team played its season opener Tuesday afternoon against the Poolville Monarchs, with the Monarchs taking the win 4-1.
The Bulldogs offense struggled to put anything together, leaving multiple runners stranded, while the Monarchs jumped out to an early lead at the top of the first inning and never looked back.
“The energy was up, [and] we turned a lot of double plays, [but] we have to get the bats rolling in the next couple of games,” head baseball coach Slayton Holland said. “We had a couple of kids coming straight from basketball and no practices with the weather, but the ceiling for this team is high as we make it this year.”
Poolville got on the scoreboard first after Jace Frost grounded into an out that allowed Keller Ripple to cross home plate, taking 1-0.
Frost later stole home, pushing the Monarchs’ lead to 2.
The two teams traded outs until the Bulldogs cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning, when Slade Babbitt brought Austin Norwood home with a sacrifice bunt, cutting the Monarch’s lead to 1.
Poolville added 2 more runs in the top of the sixth inning, with a base hit and a line drive double, sealing the win 4-1.
The Monarchs won the pitching battle, striking out 12 and allowing one hit, while the Bulldogs’ duo—Johnny Dorpinghaus and Babbitt—struck out five batters and allowed three hits.
“[Their pitchers] kept us off balance,” Holland said. “We had the bases loaded a couple of times, and we just couldn’t get the job done. We have to trust our bats, have confidence at the plate, and find a way to put the ball in play. Making the routine plays at this level of baseball is huge.”
Despite the loss, Holland said the Bulldogs are keyed in on the long road of their remaining schedule.
“The first game of the season was a real eye-opener, [but] we have all the right pieces to make a run and make the playoffs,” he said. “I told the guys, ‘We’re here to compete with everybody, and we’ve scheduled teams that we’re going to face in the [postseason] and that was just one of them, [but] I feel like we get them again later in the season, we’ll come back just fine.”
The Bulldogs will look to get back on track against the Lindsay Knights on the road at 6 p.m. Friday in Lindsay.
