LAFAYETTE – North Montgomery traveled to Lafayette’s new Loeb Stadium Saturday and came away with their first loss of the season. Lafayette Jeff took an early lead then hung on to defeat the Chargers 9-6.
Charger freshman Ross Dyson struggled in the first inning. He walked four batters and the Bronchos were able to get a couple of bloop hits to score three early runs. The big hit of the inning came from Connor Anderson who had a bases loaded double which plated three Jefferson (5-2) runners. When the dust settled, the home team scored nine runs on six hits in the inning. The Bronchos sent 13 batters to the plate.
After the Chargers went three up and three down in the second inning, Dyson seemed to settle down. The lefty came back out and retired the first three Bronchos hitters to get his defense off the field.
Charger Coach Ryan Nuppnau said the way his freshman pitcher came back in the second frame, seemed to lift his teammates.
“We really buried ourselves in the first inning,”Nuppnau said. “They hit the ball and defensively we were timid. But at that point we could have hung our heads and got 10-run ruled and gone home. But we didn’t. After Ross came back out and Jeff went one-two-three, we started getting more energy.”
Dyson only faced a total of seven batters and allowed no hits or runs for the next two innings before being relieved by sophomore Dylan Braun in the bottom of the fourth inning.
North Montgomery (6-1) plated their first four runs of the game in the fourth inning. They had hits from Jakob Kirsch, Jacob Braun and Gage Galloway with a couple of Broncho errors contributing to the Charger tallies.
North added single runs in the fifth and sixth inning. In the seventh inning they had the tying run at the plate with one out but a unassisted double play by Broncho shortstop Leo Guida ended the game.
Braun’s performance on the mound pleased Nuppnau along with the Charger defense after the first inning. He said the game should give his team a boost and wants his team to learn from the loss.
“Braun has not pitched that much but he did a good job,”, Nuppnau said. “It is good to find someone who can come in relief.
“Coming into this nice facility and playing a good team with our young team should give us confidence,” Nuppnau said. “This game should make us believe we can play with anybody.”
North Montgomery was led in hitting by Gage Galloway’s three singles. Jakob Kirsch and Jarrod Kirsch each had two hits.
Jeff was led by Jeff Bridge and Caleb Koeppen with two hits apiece.
The Chargers will travel to Seeger today.
