BEMIDJI - At MLB games, public address announcers typically have a list of songs to play after the home team draws a walk, such as 鈥淲alk of Life鈥� by Dire Straits, 鈥淭hese Boots Are Made For Walkin鈥欌�� by Nancy Sinatra and 鈥淭he Andy Griffith Show鈥� theme song.
If the Bemidji American Legion junior baseball team did the same thing, they would鈥檝e had to find 25 different songs to use on Tuesday.
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The Woodpeckers stayed patient at the plate and drew 25 walks in their doubleheader sweep of the Park Rapids Blue Sox, winning 13-3 and 14-3.
Head coach Travis Carruth was impressed with his team鈥檚 patience at the plate throughout the doubleheader, especially with the district tournament coming up next week in Perham.
鈥淚t starts with your 0-0 approach at the plate,鈥� he said. 鈥淟ooking for something you can hit hard right away and then continuing that and even getting more zeroed in.鈥�
Jack Zellmann led the Woodpeckers with five walks in the doubleheader, two of which were on full counts. Carruth praised his team鈥檚 approach on 3-2 counts and not swinging on bad pitches in the doubleheader.
鈥淲e stress that a lot in our (batting practice) sessions,鈥� he said. 鈥淗aving a good two-strike approach, having at least one physical and one mental adjustment that they need to make. They focus and work hard on that in practice, so it shows up.鈥�
In game one, Bemidji scored 13 runs on only seven hits in five innings, taking advantage of shaky Blue Sox pitching that allowed ten walks. Heaton Brodina led the offense with two hits, three RBIs and a walk.
鈥淚t was kind of back and forth between hits and walks,鈥� Carruth said of game one. 鈥淏ut it seemed every time our guys walked and got on base, we came through with big hits to score them too.鈥�
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Blue Sox pitching wasn鈥檛 any better in game two. Although they only allowed four hits, pitching struggled to find the plate again, allowing a whopping 15 walks, five of which brought in runs with the bases loaded. A six-run second inning and a seven-run third inning brought the game to a mercy rule end after the top of the fourth.
鈥淚 give these guys credit for not swaying away from their approaches at the plate and keeping the same approach no matter how the game was going,鈥� Carruth said. 鈥淩eally happy with that.鈥�
With the Bemidji offense lighting up the scoreboard, it's easy to forget the effort from the pitchers, but they were solid all day, Carruth said.
In four innings pitched, Miles Gish gave up five hits, two earned runs, three walks and recorded five strikeouts in game one. He also had an incredible diving catch in center field in game two to save a hit for Lawson Berg, who dusted himself off after a three-run first inning to record three shutout frames. Berg ended his day with three hits, one earned run, two walks and six strikeouts in four innings pitched.
鈥淥ur pitchers have been filling up the strike zone all year and they keep us in ball games all year, too, so we rely heavily on them to throw strikes and command the zone, which I thought both starters did a good job today,鈥� Carruth said.
The Woodpeckers (15-1) will try to ride the momentum into the district tournament July 17-20 in Perham, a tournament that was supposed to be hosted by Bemidji until the June 21 storm changed the location.
Carruth鈥檚 plan for the tournament?
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鈥淲in it,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e want to be playing our best baseball going into that tournament and I think these guys are pretty locked in right now.鈥�
Park Rapids 3, Bemidji 13 (F/5)
PR 000 21 鈥� 3-5-3
BEM 120 64 鈥� 13-7-1
WP: Gish (4 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K)
Park Rapids 3, Bemidji 14 (F/4)
PR 300 0 鈥� 3-3-2
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BEM 167 x 鈥� 14-4-5
WP: Berg (4 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K)
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