OAKES, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – In the first meeting of the year for these two teams, the LaMoure-Litchville/Marion Loboes came away from Oakes with a doubleheader sweep on Thursday night.
Game one was a robust victory for the Loboes while game two was a grind-it-out win.
Game One: LLM 9, OAK 1
The downfall of the Tornadoes in game one was sloppy play in the field. Six errors were committed by Oakes’ infield that lead to two unearned runs and kept numerous innings alive for the Loboes aggressive offense. On top of a rocky performance in the field, the Oakes lineup mustered up only four hits and fell victim to 14 strikeouts.
Though nine runs seems like a rough night on the mound, Oakes head coach Greg Dobitz thought his pitching staff did enough.
“We pitched well enough to win tonight. Our defense and our bats let us down a bit tonight. When you play LaMoure you have to take outs when they give them to you and we just didn’t do it enough tonight,” said Dobitz in an email.
A big reason why Oakes was held to just one run was LLM’s starting pitcher Jace Hanson going seven innings and allowing just the one unearned run.
LaMoure’s lineup was aggressive and recorded 11 hits. The stars of the lineup were catcher Alex Klever with a couple RBI’s and Jacob Ulmer led with three hits.
Game Two: OAK 4, LLM 7
Game two saw an improvement in Oakes’ offensive production. The top of the lineup recorded all five hits and scored three of the four runs. The bottom of the lineup, however, went 0-8 but walked three times.
The Loboes had to come from behind as they trailed by two runs after two and a half innings. LLM would score two in the 3rd and three in the 4th to take a three run lead. Oakes kept the pressure on by scoring single tallies in the 5th and 6th inning.
Despite the continued push from Oakes, LLM held off the Tornadoes. Mac Bierman was a big reason why as he went 3-3 with two RBI’s. Shay Ness also added a couple runs late in the game with a run scoring double.
Next time out for Oakes will be Monday at Northern Cass.