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By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Its had to look at a 26-run loss and imagine your team has improved.
But that's exactly what Calhoun Reds coach John Persinger did Wednesday evening.
Bridgeport has just handed Calhoun a 27-1 loss but Persinger was seeing positives.
The errors, he said, while too many were a positive because they were errors of commission. not errors made because the players didn't know what they were supposed to be doing.
That was the case in the doubleheader loss to the Clarksburg All-Stars last Sunday as Calhoun made 16 errors as compared to seven.
The Reds started the game in high fashion with a close first inning against the Patriots.
After starting pitcher Jerry Jones gave up four runs on two hits in the first inning Calhoun responded with a quick run of their own.
Allen Matheny led of with a single and stole second. He took third on an error and scored on a balk by the Bridgeport pitcher.
But that's when the Calhoun bats seemed to die.
Following Matheny's hit Calhoun had only two more base runners and both of those - Ben Frederick and Jordan Basnett - both walked as the Bridgeport pitching clamped down with seven strikeouts while not allowing anyone else to reach base.
Bridgeport, meanwhile, found its stroke by scoring eight in the second and 15 in the third.
In the third inning the Patriots played station-to-station baseball as they eschewed the aggressive running and base stealing with a big lead like Clarksburg had done in its doubleheader sweep.
After working on fielding fundamentals following the doubleheader loss the Reds improved and despite losing handily to Bridgeport their play had improved leading to the possibility of more fundamental work the rest of the week heading into the next game.
Calhoun will return to action Sunday when it travels to St. Marys for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
The games will be at the Pleasants County Park.
Directions from Route 16: Take Route 16 to the bottom of the St. Marys hill where it dead ends on Route 2. Turn left at the stoplight and go one block to Cheery Street. Turn left on Cherry Street for two blocks to the field.
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