Bulldogs fall apart late in lop-sided loss

PEETZ, Colo. — For four innings Wednesday afternoon, the Peetz High School baseball Bulldogs were locked in a tight scrum with visiting Caliche. Then along came a fifth-inning meltdown that repeated itself twice more.

Batting around in each of the final three innings and scoring 14 unanswered runs — fueled by numerous wild pitches, errors and passed balls — the visiting Buffaloes turned a one-run deficit into an easy 16-3 victory.

Peetz (1-2) held a 1-0 lead after an inning when John Ommen sliced a hit-and-run double to right-center field, plating Bulldogs starting pitcher Austin Crane.

Crane sprung a leak in Caliche’s second, where he walked two batters and let both runners come around with five wild pitches.

The Bulldogs got the lead back in the last half of the inning, when with two outs, Josh Fiscus and Brian Roelle both drew walks. Brady Holtz singled to left field to score Fiscus. Crane then looped a single to left which was kicked by the left fielder, allowing Roelle to rumble home for a 3-2 Peetz lead.

Crane pitched out of trouble in the Caliche third, stranding a runner at third on a punch-out third strike, and then picked off a baserunner in the fourth.

Things fell apart for Crane and the Bulldogs in the Caliche fifth. It all started when Crane hit the first two batters, and then after striking out leadoff hitter Cade County, Joel Contraras, who earned the pitching decision in relief, cranked a double to right-center to chase home Jarred Thompson and Austin Yahn.

Crane then became unraveled, uncorking three more wild pitches around another walk and a groundout. When courtesy runner Cole Debus slid across home plate on another wild pitch, Crane missed connections with the throw back from catcher Josh Cavender, and the baseball struck the Bulldogs’ pitcher in the face.

Crane went to the ground, and exited the game with what appeared to be a broken nose.

Things just never got better for Peetz, which couldn’t muster a rally against Contraras, who went three innings to pick up the win.

In the meantime, Caliche (1-2) parlayed two hits, three errors a hit batsman and two more wild pitches into a five-run sixth, then tacked on four more runs in the seventh.

Ironically, Caliche’s Jayden Stieb had the dubious distinction of making his team’s final out in the last four innings.

Holtz, who relieved Crane, allowed 10 runs in 1 2/3 innings, but only one was earned.

Peetz pitchers gave their catchers quite a workout, whistling 16 wild pitches to the backstop. Peetz made seven errors in the field, including two dropped fly balls in the outfield, and the Bulldogs were also guilty of four passed balls.

Ommen had two hits to lead the Peetz offense, which had just two scratch hits late after scoring all its runs in the first two innings.

Peetz entertains Pawnee to a league doubleheader April 4 at 1 p.m.

Caliche 16, Peetz 3

Caliche 020 055 4—16 7 3

Peetz 120 000 0— 3 5 7

Caliche (1-2; ab r h bi): County dh 4 1 1 2, Contraras ss-c-p 5 0 3 4, Wathler cr 0 3 0 0, Davison c-p 4 0 0 0, Debus cr 0 3 0 0, Miller rf 3 1 0 0, Flores p-cf 4 2 2 1, L. Chartier 2b-ss 3 1 1 2, Stieb 1b 5 0 0 0, Thompson kf 1 3 0 0, Yahn cf-2b 3 2 0 0. Totals 32 16 7 9

Peetz (1-2; ab r h bi): Holtz ss-p 3 0 1 1, Crane p 1 1 1 0, G.Roelle p-ss 2 0 0 0, Ommen 3b-ss 3 0 2 1, Cavender c-ss 3 0 0 0, Clevenger 2b 3 0 0 0, Janes 1b-rf 3 0 0 0, Heller lf 3 0 0 0, Fiscus cf 2 1 1 0, B.Roelle dh 1 1 0 0, Wilson rf-c 1 0 0 0. Totals 25 3 5 2

Caliche ip h r er so bb

Flores 3 3 2 3 4 5

Contraras (W) 3 1 0 0 3 1

Davison 1 1 0 0 2 1

Peetz ip h r er so bb

Crane (L) 4.2 2 6 6 8 6

Holtz 1.2 2 10 1 2 2

Ommen .2 0 0 0 0 0