EAST GRAND FORKS — Costly errors and plate appearances gave way to East Grand Forks Sacred Heart relinquishing a 2-0 lead heading into the fifth inning against Fertile-Beltrami on Thursday.
Fertile-Beltrami did all the damage late, pulling out a 4-3 win over Sacred Heart at Stauss Park.
The Falcons took advantage of small-ball tactics in the fifth to tie the game. In the seventh, Fertile-Beltrami took a 4-2 lead thanks to more sacrifice plays. The Eagles only managed three hits after scoring the first run of the contest on their first hit.
“For whatever reason, the day you shouldn’t hit the ball in the air we just chose to hit the ball in the air. We needed to find a different way,” Sacred Heart head coach Paul Bethke said.
This loss comes after a 12-0 Sacred Heart win over Fosston, in which the top three of the order combined for four runs scored.
Isaac Sundby created both Sacred Heart runs this time around in those first three innings. He led off the game with an RBI single that brought in Elliot Arntson. Then in the third, he manufactured a run by himself.
After reaching base on an infield error, Sundby stole second and third. The throw to third base went beyond the bag and Sundby cruised to the plate all in the following at bat.
The mistakes in the field started with Fertile, but would creep into Sacred Heart’s play in the second half of the game.
“Nick (Satterlund) pitched well enough to win, but you can’t make four errors and expect to win. You can’t let the other team do what they want to do. That’s supposed to be our job, especially at home,” Bethke said.
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The Falcons were determined to move runners over when they got men on and it worked to perfection in the fifth inning. Following a Drew Gullickson triple, Brady Bjerk laid down a squeeze bunt with Gullickson charging home hard. Both players reached safely.
Another sac bunt from Joe Sorenson put Bjerk in scoring position. With two outs, there was a golden opportunity for the Eagles to get out of the inning relatively unscathed. A ground ball to Sundby at short could have stopped the momentum, but the throw sailed out of play to automatically score Bjerk.
At the top of the seventh, Bjerk and Sorenson were at it again as the latter dropped a bunt down to move the former over to second. Another error allowed both runners to remain at the corners with no outs. Bjerk, again, scored on a throwing error before Easton Petry brought in Sorenson with a groundout RBI.
“It’s getting too late in the year to be making those errors. I know they were physical errors, but sometimes you’re not putting yourself in the right position to make a routine play. It’s when you throw the ball around and they are getting extra bases and they get a hit and it really costs you,” Bethke said.
Sacred Heart responded in its last at-bat with an Arntson single, a Sundby sacrifice bunt and a Parker Erickson sacrifice fly but David Larson flew out to end the comeback effort.
The Eagles, 7-3, have seven games remaining in the regular season, including games against 9-1 East Grand Forks and 10-1 Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton.
“We just have to be more consistent with our at-bats,” Bethke said. “Nick pitched good enough to win, but we just didn’t generate any offense for him.”
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Satterlund collected 10 strikeouts with two earned runs in his six innings of work.
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