But the Blue Springs head baseball coach broke his own rule for Thursday’s home game against Fort Osage, and it turned out to be a good decision.
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| Blue Springs' Corbin Hare, center, high fives teammates after hitting a solo home run in the first inning of Thursday's 8-3 win over Fort Osage. |
Corbin Hare made his first start of the season on the mound but it was his bat that was impressive, as he smashed two home runs in an 8-3 win.
“I’m just trying to hit a line drive,” said Hare when asked if the winds blowing out and short fences had him thinking home run. “He threw a fastball both times. I just saw it and hit it. I wasn’t trying to do too much.”
The Wildcats hit three home runs for the game, as they came back from a 3-1 deficit by scoring seven runs in the final two innings, including five in the top of the sixth.
“They came alive when we needed them,” Hines said of his teams’ bats. “We come in spurts. Our bread and butter isn’t going to be hitting home runs, but it’s nice to get them.”
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| Blue Springs relief pitcher Bill Slivinski throws a pitch against Fort Osage Thursday. He picked up the win. |
The Wildcats were quiet at the plate for four innings, as Hare’s first homer was all the offense they could muster. But Brian Burasco’s two-run homer to tie the game in the fifth seemed to get the ball rolling, as the Wildcats started to be more patient at the plate.
A costly error by the Indians on a Nick Gulotta grounder got the rally started in the sixth, which was followed by a James McKinley sacrifice bunt. The move paid off when David Stober hit the go-ahead single to left field.
“Nick set the table and then James, I told him before the inning that when Nick got on I might ask him to bunt and he said he would get the job done,” Hines said. “He set the table for the kids behind him. David got a big hit and the floodgates opened.
“In the end our patience paid off. He got a couple of pitches up and we hit them.”
Added Hare, “Their pitcher was overthrowing and trying to do too much. He was missing high and in the dirt.”
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| Blue Springs junior Wylson Lamb dives back to first base during the fifth inning of Thursday's game. |
Fort Osage had the chance for a big inning in the top of the fourth. Hare fought his control on the mound in his first start of the season and with two outs in the fourth an error, hit batter and RBI single – all with two outs – gave the Indians a 3-1 lead and runners at the corners.
In came the Wildcats’ relief specialist, lefty Bill Slivinski, who ended the inning on a deep fly ball to center field.
“I knew I just had to make one pitch to get out of it,” Slivinski said. “I was nervous for a second that it would hit the gap.”
After that hard hit ball, Slivinski got on a roll, retiring the next six batters he faced, striking out four of them using a nasty string of off speed pitches.
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| Blue Springs senior James McKinley lays down a sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning Thursday. |
“I don’t consider myself a strikeout pitcher, but it worked out that way today,” he said with a laugh. “My plan is to keep them off balance, get ahead with the fastball and get them off balance the rest of the at-bat. My curve was working well. The coaches preach getting ahead in the count.”
Added Hare of Slivinski, “He picked me up. He’s been our best relief pitcher all year. He’s doing work and getting the job done.”
The win moved the Wildcats to 3-2 as they head into the Jefferson City Tournament this weekend.
“It definitely helps our confidence,” Hare said of the win. “We were able to swing the bats late and our relief pitchers shut them down.”
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