Baseball: Ottawa holds off feisty St. Bede with 4th inning rally

OTTAWA – Living dangerously is not something Ottawa coach Tyler Wargo would want to do every game, but if the outcome remains the same as it has so far this season, he might just take it.

After grabbing a 2-0 lead against St. Bede in the first inning, the Pirates committed three errors behind starting pitcher Rylan Dorsey in the fourth to allow the Bruins to score the tying runs, and later had the bases loaded and still no one out.

But Dorsey got out of the jam by inducing a 1-2-3 double play for the second inning in a row, then got the win when his teammates put up four runs in their half of the fourth inning for a 6-2 victory Wednesday at King Field.

Dorsey owes Daniel Bruner, in part, for making that decision possible, thanks to his tie-breaking a single during that winning rally and throwing three innings of shutout relief to help finish a combined three-hitter.

Bruner finished with two of the six hits for the Pirates (3-0) off of St. Bede starter Alan Spencer and reliever Landon Jackson, who was touched for the deciding rally.

“I was really proud of how we adjusted to not playing great in those first four innings,” Ottawa coach Tyler Wargo said. “It was one of those games where we got up early, maybe took our foot off the gas a little bit against a good team that’s well coached over there, one that took advantage of our mistakes and not playing clean baseball. When you give a team like that a chance, that’s how baseball works, you’re in jeopardy. Fortunately, luck was on our side there.

“What I’m most proud of was that even though Dorsey didn’t have his best stuff, and we didn’t have a good defensive inning, we battled back. We have a lot to clean up, but it’s always better to learn from wins and learn from losses.”

Ottawa’s 2-0 first-inning lead came courtesy of the first of three walks issued to leadoff man Julian Alexander, a wild pitch, an RBI single by Bruner and a sacrifice fly by Ryan Chamberlain.

But the Bedans knotted the score with two unearned runs off Dorsey in the top of the fourth. A walk to Nathan Husser and an error on Callan Hueneburg’s bouncer put them at second and third.

After Husser scored on a wild pitch, Spencer hit a dribbler that was thrown to the plate too late to get Hueneburg. Two more miscues loaded the bases before Dorsey induced a one-hopper that he, catcher Branden Aguirre and Chamberlain turned into a 1-2-3 twin killing.

The Pirates regained control against Jackson in their half starting with a one-out double by Aguirre. He took third on a groundout and later scored on a wild pitch as Alexander walked, later stole second and scored on another Bruner hit.

The inning nearly ended there when Aiden Mucci lofted a two-out flyball to left, but it was misplayed for two more Ottawa runs. Jackson followed with two scoreless innings, and Bruner fanned four without allowing a hit over three innings.

“We were a hit away from taking the lead, and we hit the ball on the nose a couple of times,” St. Bede coach Bill Booker said. “Not as many as they did. They had some at-’em balls that we didn’t play well. We had that one bad inning. For five out of six innings, we competed really well.

“I was very happy with our sophomore starter [Spencer] today. He battled, did a good job, and he’s gonna get more innings for us as the year goes on after seeing what he can do against a good team like Ottawa. And Lando, his timing was off a little, but he’s gonna be okay, too. The last two games, we threw four guys, so we needed them today and they gave us what we needed.”