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A mistake-filled day

Lately, Alpena High baseball coach Phil Schultz has been trying to figure out a remedy for the Wildcats’ woes, trying to find something that will lead to more consistency and better overall play as Alpena draws closer to the postseason.

Unfortunately for Schultz and the Wildcats, the answer didn’t become any clearer on Tuesday after a Big North Conference doubleheader against Ogemaw Heights.

The Wildcats committed more than a dozen errors against the Falcons, but managed to come away with a win anyway. Alpena won the first game 10-9 in eight innings and lost the second game 5-1 in six innings.

Ironically, errors helped the Wildcats (14-5-1, 6-1 Big North) win the opener. Braeden Werth led off the bottom of the eighth inning by reaching on an error. After Nick Skiba hit a fly ball to center field for an out, Cam Cosbitt hit a grounder that looked to be an easy out. Instead the Falcons tried to throw out Werth at third and the ball sailed into the outfield, allowing Werth to score.

It was perhaps the lone bright spot during an otherwise forgettable day for the Wildcats.

“How we won that first game I have no idea. I’ll take it, it was like a gift,” Schultz said. “Ironically (despite) all the errors we made, we won it on a couple errors at the end. Truthfully, we shouldn’t have been able to win either one of these games today.”

While Werth scored the winning run, he also game through with Alpena’s biggest hit in the opener. With two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth inning, Werth hit a bases-clearing double to tie the game 9-9.

Werth finished with two hits and Bailey Marquardt had two hits for the Wildcats as well.

Alpena’s troubles started early as the Wildcats committed two errors in the top of the first inning, allowing Ogemaw to take a 3-0 lead. Alpena responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning, including a two-run double from Cosbitt.

The rest of the game was a struggle for the Wildcats as they committed eight more errors, including four in the fourth inning, which helped the Falcons take a 7-6 lead.

Alpena scored two runs in the second inning to take a 6-4 lead, but the Falcons surged ahead to a 9-6 lead after four and a half innings and had control of the game until Werth’s big hit.

Despite their struggles, Alpena held Ogemaw to no runs and just two hits in the final three innings. Dylan Tucker earned the win for Alpena in relief, striking out four, walking one and allowing one hit.

Whatever momentum the Wildcats might have seized in the opener went away quickly in the nightcap. Ogemaw scored a run on a wild pitch in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead and added another run on an error in the fourth inning. Alpena committed two more errors in the fifth inning as Ogemaw scored three more times.

“I’ve never, ever had a team play this poorly. We just couldn’t make plays and they weren’t tough plays, but for whatever reason we just couldn’t do it,” Schultz said.

Offensively, Alpena was limited to just three hits-one each for Werth, Marquardt and Ben Matteson-and the Wildcats’ only run came in the second inning when Matteson doubled to score Marquardt.

Ogemaw pitcher Ryan Rivard earned the win, striking out five and walking one. Joe Ayala took the loss for Alpena, allowing five runs on five hits with six walks and eight strikeouts.

Alpena hosts Traverse City Central on Thursday and Schultz said the best thing the Wildcats can do is forget Tuesday’s debacle and try to play relaxed.

“We’ve got to put this behind us. We’ve been trying to work on that all along, put it behind us and move forward,” Schultz said. “But the kids aren’t relaxed, they’re tensed and we try to tell them, you’ve just got to play the game.”

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.

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