HEBER In a twist of pure irony, the Park City High School baseball team held its first home game of the season in enemy territory Tuesday afternoon.
The Miners were scheduled to host their rivals, the Wasatch Wasps, but the Park City home field was waterlogged the game was played in Heber instead.
Park City donned its home white uniforms for the first time this season. Unfortunately for the Miners, the not-at-home home opener didn’t play out as hoped.
Park City fell to the Wasps 7-4, in a game that featured an abundance of base hits, stolen bases and tense moments. The Miners dropped to 4-6 on the year and 1-1 in Region 10 play.
“These are always tough ones to lose,” said head coach Lou Green, who got his first taste of the Highway 40 rivalry. “They’re rivalry games, but that’s part of it. You’ve gotta learn how to lose, just like you’ve gotta learn how to win.”
After each team went scoreless through the first two innings, the Wasps burst onto the scoreboard with a four-run top of the third. Wasatch had three singles in the inning, including a suicide squeeze with the bases loaded, to go up 4-0.
Park City answered in the bottom with two runs of its own as Colin Morin reached on an infield hit, stole second base and scored when starting pitcher Conner Lagnese singled to left field. Lagnese stole second and scored on a single to right field by leadoff hitter Robert Cashel, who advanced to second on a fielder’s choice. The speedy center fielder stole third base, but was left there as second baseman Mark Trevino struck out and shortstop Skyler Barkdull popped out to the pitcher to end the Miners’ threat.
“They say part of baseball is limiting big innings,” Green said. “We let that one get away from us.”
The score remained 4-2 until the top of the sixth inning when an error by Barkdull allowed a Wasp to reach first base. Lagnese walked the next batter. Minuscule Wasatch leadoff hitter Parker Bamgartner then smoked an RBI triple to left field, putting Wasatch up 6-2.
Park City responded to the change in the scoreboard once again in the bottom of the sixth adding two more runs, cutting the Wasatch deficit to 6-4. The exciting inning featured Cashel stealing third base as the Wasps’ catcher sailed his throw down the line. Cashel didn’t realize the ball had been kicked away by the Wasatch third baseman and tried to make it home, but was thrown out.
“I almost held him up, but you know, it’s the fastest guy on the team,” Green said. “We’re just trying to make something happen there. That’s a huge momentum-swinger if he’s safe. But hindsight’s 20-20.”
After Wasatch added a run in the top of the seventh inning, Park City threatened in the bottom of the last frame, but Trevino grounded out to second base with runners on first and third
Senior right fielder and pitcher Conner Howard said afterward his team needs to be a bit more aggressive early and often.
“It’s tough, but I thought we battled pretty hard,” he said. “We just need to get the bats going more and play some defense and get some big innings.”
“I think that’s partly enthusiasm and partly going up with the right approach,” he said of becoming more aggressive. “Sometime’s we’ll get out there and everybody is doing something different. We just need to kind of get together as a team.”
For Green’s coaching style implementing a fast-pace, high-energy offensive attack to get results, the bats need to be awakened, he said.
“We’ve got a lot of guys coming up in key situations and striking out,” he said. “That’s just about being mentally tough enough to stay in the at-bat. Questionable calls or not, you’ve got to be tough enough to stay in at-bats.
“When you start giving at-bats away, it becomes too easy to lose,” he said. “That’s when you make a good pitcher a great pitcher.”
Howard said being a senior on a fairly young team comes with some responsibility.
“I try not to get up and down too much,” he said. “It’s more important to be up than just staying even keel throughout the game. But I think we’re doing a fairly good job of that so far.”