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An inning that wouldn’t end

Steamboat Springs baseball team drops a pair of games against Eagle Valley

Luke Graham

— The Steamboat Springs baseball seemingly had the game in hand.

The team had staked to an 8-1 lead through three and a half innings. They chased Eagle Valley pitcher Bear Bartman after only 2 2/3 innings pitched and had limited the Devils to three hits.

Then the bottom of the third inning came.



Eagle Valley sent 13 hitters to the plate, scored nine runs – all with two outs – and turned a Steamboat lead into a 19-10 Sailors loss.

“That first game, it was the big inning that killed us,” said Sailors manager Dave Roy, whose team gave up another big inning in the second game and fell, 18-5. “We should have been out of there with only a couple but that’s been the story of our season.”



After pounding out seven hits in the first three innings the Sailors struggled to get only two more the rest of the game. From the fourth inning on Steamboat managed only five baserunners the rest of the game. Conversely, Eagle Valley had 19 hits and scored 18 runs from that third inning on.

“Almost every game, it’s that one big inning,” said senior Aaron Hornstein, who finished the year with a team-leading four homeruns. “If we could have got three outs, we definitely would have won. I guess sometimes the bear gets you and sometimes you get the bear.”

Early on, it looked like the Sailors had thoughts of playing only five innings. After getting a run on a balk in the first inning, Steamboat started to string together hits and baserunners in the second inning. After a walk and two singles loaded the bases up, Hornstein hit a bases-clearing triple to give Steamboat a 4-0 lead.

Then in the top of the third inning, Skylar Mitchell led off with a single, before a Cody Harris double brought in Mitchell. Then after a single, freshman Cody Miles hit a two-run homerun to put Steamboat up, 8-1.

In the second game, it looked as if Steamboat would turn the tables on Eagle Valley.

After the Devils jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the third, Steamboat answered with five runs in its half of the inning.

Unfortunately, Steamboat gave up eight runs in the sixth inning before finally falling, 18-5.

Roy said he’s excited to see the players coming back and has scheduled more than 40 games this summer. Still, he said it will be tough to send off the seniors.

“The seniors gave it everything they had,” Roy said of seniors Marc Hall, Brian Aragon, Nic DeVos, Mitchell and Hornstein who were playing in their final games. “Hopefully, they feel satisfied and somewhat gratified.”

– To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229

or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com


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