Archive: Sports

The number seven is considered lucky but, it wasn’t luck that put the Lansing Junior Varsity Baseball team’s record to seven and zero.  The team has been working hard, developing not only their skills but their discipline at the plate, sportsmanship and confidence in themselves and in their teammates.  The Moravia Blue Devils were almost blanked in their 20 – 1 loss against Lansing.  The Groton Indians didn’t fare much better when they hit the buzz saw of strikes from The Brandon and Brandon Show resulting in a 13 – 1 defeat.  Last Friday the Blue Raiders were caught between two storm fronts.  One was being carried by the wind from the west and the other was delivered by a bus from across the lake.  For their fourth game last week, the Bobcats shut the Blue Raiders out with a five inning, one hit, 7 – 0, victory.

Logan Osterman took the mound for his season debut, pitching four efficient innings and earning the win.  For the first two innings, he worked on developing some of his pitches the Blue Devils would get a few runners on base.  Osterman would then tighten down and strikeout the next three.  For the third and fourth innings the Lansing defense did their share by making good plays.  In total Osterman had seven K’s, two walks, and allowed only one run.  Bryce Stanhope came out from behind the dish as catcher to close the game as pitcher.  He also was very efficient, averaging only 15 pitches per inning.  Stanhope knew his team had his back and only had to strikeout two of the Moravia players to finish the game.

As far as the Bobcats offense went, there were too many hits to list.  As typical they started a little slow for the first three innings but then turned on the afterburners batting through the order for the fourth and sixth innings.  Ben Kutler, Brandon Mikula and Stanhope all scored three runs each.  Kutler went three for three with a walk and an RBI.  Greg Lee went three for four with a walk and three RBI. Codey Little batted a thousand with a walk and crossed home plate twice.  Brandon Davis continued to crush the ball driving in three of his teammates.   Grant Sterle also batted well, getting on base with a well-placed hit.  All in all 16 hits and seven walks produced the 20 runs scored for Lansing.

The Groton Indians traveled over the hill to see the Brandon and Brandon show.  Brandon Davis and Brandon Mikula pitched to only 27 batters, an average of 3.8 batters per inning.  Together they allowed only one hit and one run.  B. Davis had seven K’s and Mikula had two.  When talking about the success of the pitching, one cannot forget the defense behind it.  The defense played an almost error free game.


Jared Strait, Dominic Tarallo and B. Davis all batted a thousand helping to score eight of the Bobcats 13 runs.  Owen Davis continued to increase his on base percentage with disciplined at bats resulting in four walks.  Stanhope, Osterman and Lee all did their part by batting five hundred.

Lansing crossed the lake, to face their league rival Trumansburg and they brought a storm with them.  Trumansburg came out charging and took down the first three batters for Lansing.  It was going to be a game.  Strait took the mound, for his first start of the season, with a look of determination on his face.  Two K's and a fly ball that Lee made look easy, three up, three down.  Lansing's bats started to stir. Osterman crushed a double into left center field.  Davis took the count full and drew a walk.  Tarallo followed with a disciplined walk of his own and Lee hit into a fielder's choice that advanced the runners. The Raiders made the third out to stop the Bobcats roll but, not before Osterman and Owen Davis created filled in boxes in the book.  Strait took down batters four, five, and six with two more K's and another fly ball vacuumed in by Lee. 

The top of the Bobcats order went down hitting the ball hard but into the gloves of the Trumansburg's stout defense. For the third inning the only player to touch Straits pitches was Lansing's catcher, Stanhope. He mowed down the last three in the lineup of nine with three K's.   The Davis twins put two more runs on the board to put the score at 4 - 0 Lansing.  The top of Trumansburg's order started to settle in.  Strait handled a ground ball hit directly back at him to make the out at first and keep his no hitter alive and well.  The Raiders number two hitter stepped into the batter's box determined to put a stop to that.  The weather was changing and one of Strait's pitches went straight down the middle of the plate.  The Trumansburg shortstop returned it quickly, driving it hard into left, center field for a base hit and the first hit off of Strait in 24 batters. Strait settled in, shook it off and struck out another two batters to end the fourth inning.


It started to sprinkle and you could tell the storm was coming in quick.  Lansing had to get through the fifth inning to make the game official.  Time was now an opponent.  The top of the order for Lansing finally came alive and they tacked on another three runs.  The sky grew darker and the rain and winds picked up.  Strait added another K to bring his total to ten.  The rain came down harder which caused the ball to become slippery and he lost a little of his control.  Two batters walked and another popped up to Mikula at short.  He later stated that the rain pelting him in the eyes made it the toughest catch he has ever made.  With two outs, runners at first and second, and the rain really starting to come down, Strait got the sign from Stanhope telling him that the runner on second was getting a little greedy.  He whipped around, snapping the ball to Kutler who tagged the runner out, ending the game. 7 - 0, Lansing.

Baseball is a game of failures.  You may fail seven out of ten times and still make it into The Hall of Fame.  Maybe these boys have not heard this.  Offensively the team is doing well and still improving. The team batting average is 0.346 and more importantly their OBP (On Base Percentage) is 0.613.  Owen Davis owns the teams highest OBP at 0.806 and climbing.  Kutler and Atkins both have batting averages over 0.500.  Defensively, the team is incredibly solid, making very few errors and pitching very well.

Their next game is scheduled for Friday, April 29, 4:30 PM, at home, vs. TAE.

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