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Sports Bobcat Battering: Union sweeps Imbler
Bobcat Battering: Union sweeps Imbler
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Tick, tock. One inning done. No harm. Tick, tock. Another inning. Still no harm. Tick ... Then the Bobcat Battering began.
Spurred by home runs, walks and experience, Union swept Imbler, 11-1, 13-3, ending its regular season in dominating fashion, heading into districts clicking on all cylinders. “If you look at some pitches, you start to get in a good (groove),” Union coach Greg Poor said. “I thought we were real patient early on, and kids got to look at some pitches.” Especially two Bobcats —Brian Savely and Kyle Langford. Here was Savely, standing in the batter’s box in the third-inning of Game 1, eyeing a pitch, then ... Pinnnng! There it went, towering toward right field, back ... back ... back ... Gone. Two-run homer, right into those Union parents sitting on lawnchairs and truck beds. One inning later, here was Langford, eyeing a pitch then ... Pinnnng! There it went, sailing deep into centerfield, back ... back ... back ... Gone. Another two-run homer. Three batters later, Savely trotted to the plate, again, looked at another pitch, again, then ... Pinnnng! There it went into centerfield, and here was Imbler senior Jake Noyes, backpedaling, backpedaling, then running out of room as this hardball cleared the heightened two-tier fence.
 BIG MAC: Taylor McIntosh went 2-for-3 in Game 1. Another home run ball for Poor to corral. “I try to get the home run ball and get the date,” said Poor, who collects them, marks them, then hands them out at the end-of-year banquet — scuff marks and all-— for record and memoir purposes. “I save them in my bag. “Maybe someday they’ll have a mantle to put them on.” And maybe someday Langford will have one — with a defensive award atop it. Here he was, charging a ground ball, watching it hop oddly off the infield grass, yet jumping and timing it perfectly, gloving it, then gunning a runner at first. Out. Here he was again, tracking a pop-fly, side pedaling, back pedaling, then feeling his mitt pop — hardball inside — then feeling the Union turf, tumbling over his centerfielder. Ball in glove? Ball in glove. Out. “Mentally, he probably showed up better prepared than anyone else,” Poor said. “He got after it in every aspect. “The intensity was there.” And it continued in Game 2. Tick, tock? Nah. No countdown this time. It only took one inning for the onslaught to begin, as Union scored four times in the first en route to a 13-3 five-inning rout. Langford went 2-for-5 (4 RBIs) and Savely 2-for-4 (4 RBIs). They shined at the plate, again. They led their team to victory, again. They led a Bobcat Battering, again. “We just got to play better,” said Imbler coach Monty McIntosh, whose team committed five errors in Game 1, four in Game 2. “We’re not making the routine outs.” Four freshman and no junior varsity program results in an inexperienced Imbler team at several positions. And in this game, it translated into errors and 10-run losses against a more experienced Bobcat Bunch. But, someday, those freshman will be seniors, and this, perhaps, will be a valuable experience — one that can lead to better days. For now, though, it’s the Bobcats who are better. And they ride into districts on a positive wave. Although most Special District 7 teams have anywhere from two-to-four games left on the schedule, Union, conversely, is finished. Now it’s a waiting game until the postseason. Will this layoff hurt? “I don’t think it’s going to hurt us,” Poor said. “We got enough kids where we’ll do some inter-squad stuff. “We’ll see what happens when districts roll around.” Game 1 Imbler 100 000 — 1 6 5 Union 012 503 — 11 8 3 W — Woodward. L— Coughlan. 2B—I, Coughlan. HR— U,Savely (2), Langford.
Imbler 101 01 — 3 9 4 Union 410 26 — 13 10 2 W — Billman. L — Thompson. 2B— I, Noyes; U, Langford. 3B — U, Langford. |
