"The best thing I can say about today is we finally got to play somebody other than ourselves."
That's how Wallace baseball coach Ryan Ihle described his team's opening day game against the Indian River Pioneers. Playing in the PCB College baseball Classic, the Govs fell to the Patriots 8-0.
"You could tell it was our first game," Ihle continued. "We made a bunch of rookie mistakes. We played like freshmen because that's who we are. We've got to grow up and mature. We've got to outgrow our age and the only way we can do that is to play games."
This was the Patriots fifth game of the season, and it showed. Everything they hit was hard, even the outs. The Govs only gave up a respectable eight hits, but Wallace pitchers also gave up seven free passes—either by the walk or hit batter.
"We did play solid defense," Ihle said. "That was good to see. We've just got to improve on the other stuff."
The trouble for Wallace began early. Starting and losing pitcher Braden Rapp gave up three runs in the first inning, even though he only gave up two hits. He also mixed in a walk and two hit batters to account for the runs.
In the fourth inning, Rapp gave up a solo home run to Maked Lucena. A ground out in the fifth inning accounted for one run, and the Patriots ended their scoring by tacking on three more runs in the sixth.
Indian River pitching kept the Gov hitters off balance all game long. The Govs only managed three hits in the entire game. One was a solid single to centerfield by Kason Gleaton in the fourth inning, while Headland's Evan Taylor had a single to right field in the second and he was able to beat the ball to first base in the fifth for an infield single.
The Govs really only had three good chances to score in the game. One of them was squandered on a base running mistake. Another came when the Govs had their only base runner at third base. That came in the fourth inning with less than two outs. However the Govs were unable to push the runner across. The third opportunity came when Gleaton hit a long fly ball that the left fielder tracked down and caught right at the wall.
The Govs will next play at 1 pm Saturday against Eastern Florida State and again at 6 pm against Dyersburg State community College.
