Beetles baseball: No panic in midst of early losing streak

• Garcia

Beetles' infielder David Garcia squared up a pitch during a game against the Duluth Huskies earlier this season. (Echo Press photo by Eric Morken)

Talk about it

More...

• Follow Eric Morken on Twitter @echo_sports

The Alexandria Beetles saw their losing streak hit four games with back-to-back losses in Thunder Bay on Monday and Tuesday night.

The Beetles couldn’t find the big hit on either night as they fell 7-1 on Tuesday after dropping a 7-3 game the night before.

Alexandria had nine hits in the final game, including three from Dylan Raper out of the ninth spot in the order. Alexandria’s Dalton Leuschke had the team’s only RBI in the losing effort. After the game, the message was pretty simple.

“I think the biggest thing right now is to not panic,” head coach Drew Saberhagen said. “We are 2-5 right now. We started 2-4 last year and finished with the best record in the Northwoods League. If we have all our everyday guys now and we go on a five, six game losing streak, then maybe wonder what’s going on.”

Alexandria will be getting a lot of those regulars into town in the next few days. In the meantime, Saberhagen said he is happy with a group of guys who are giving him the consistent effort that he wants.

“We just need to let these kids keep playing,” he said. “Not overcoach them, micromanage them, just let them play. They’re playing hard. There’s a couple mental mistakes that we’ve addressed, but that’s the way it’s going to go sometimes.”

The Beetles will have to get things turned around on the road as they embark on an 11-game road trip that starts tonight. Alexandria will play two games in St. Cloud before taking a day off on Sunday. The Beetles will then have three games in Mankato and five games against Waterloo before wrapping up the road trip in Rochester on June 19.

GAME STATISTICS

ALEXANDRIA 000 000 100 – 1 9 1

THUNDER BAY 100 500 01X – 7 9 1

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING – Michael Reed – L, 4IP, 7H, 6R, 6ER, 3BB, 3SO; Jon Reed – 3IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2SO; Caleb DeLee – 1IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 0SO

ALEXANDRIA HITTING – Will Fulmer – 1-4, 2B, BB; Leuschke – 1-5, RBI; Johnny Tolson – 0-4, BB; David Garcia – 0-4; Jon Traetow – 2-4; Josh Carpenter – 0-4; David Borchardt – 0-2, BB, 1 run, HP; Jared Musgrove – 2-4; Raper – 3-4

ALEXANDRIA 101 000 100 – 3 9 2

THUNDER BAY 001 200 40X – 7 14 1

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING – Alex Guilford – 5IP, 8H, 3R, 3ER, 0BB, 0SO; Matthew Dierman – 2IP, 6H, 4R, 2ER, 0BB, 3SO; Rene Martinez – 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 1SO

ALEXANDRIA HITTING – Fulmer – 1-5; Carpenter – 1-5, 2B, 1 run, RBI; Tolson – 3-5, 1 run, RBI; Garcia – 3-4, BB; Traetow – 1-4, 2B, RBI; Borchardt – 0-4; Raper – 0-4; Musgrove – 0-4; Erik Nockleby – 0-2, 2 BB, 1 run

Eric Morken

Eric Morken started as a sports reporter for the Echo Press on July 9, 2007. He is a graduate of Augustana College in Sioux Falls where he majored in journalism and minored in history and communications. In his spare time, Morken enjoys hunting and fishing or just being in the outdoors. He is also an avid Minnesota sports fan. Follow Sports Reporter Eric Morken on Twitter at @echo_sports. Read Eric's sports blog, More with Morken at Areavoices.

Tags: alexandria sports, sports, beetles, baseball