Rough Riders run over Longhorns

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Newcastle Longhorns started out strong last week with another win over Buffalo on Wednesday, then travelled to Dickinson, N.D., to do battle with the American League team in back-to-back doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. Though coach Alex Schaneman’s team lost against Dickinson in all four contests, he was pleased overall with the level of play exhibited on the week.
“We started much better against Buffalo than we did the first time, and we played pretty well against Dickinson,” Schaneman began. “It was a very good trip for our kids to go play a team like that because they are the best team we’ve seen all season.”
Against Buffalo, the Longhorns were firing on all cylinders and closed the game out with a score of 19-10. The team hit the ball well from the beginning to the end, and in anticipation of the upcoming games in North Dakota, Schaneman rotated pitchers often in order to keep pitch counts down.
Zach Purviance started and threw for two innings, Cade Ostenson got in the action for a couple more, Cam Williams took his turn as did Josh Stevens.
“It was a pitch by committee situation because we needed to save our pitching for the weekend against Dickinson,” Schaneman explained. “All four guys did a pretty good job, and Cade didn’t give up any hits or runs on his first time throwing this year.”
In his first game of the season, Ostenson made a discernable difference by not only his performance on the mound, but he also had three hits including a home run to left-center field, which is opposite his power.
“Cade had a big game and he ended up with five or six RBIs,” Schaneman grinned. “He’s just a very good baseball player and we’re lucky to have him playing for us.”
Sawyer Roberson also had a good night at the plate going four for four, including a ground rule double to right center that was really close to being a home run. Stevens hit one over the fence and had two other hits while Peyton Tystad and Williams each had a couple of hits as well.
“It was a great night at-bat for us, and every time they’d get close, we’d score three or four runs,” Schaneman nodded. “It was nice to prove to Buffalo that the last time we played them and they got up on us 7-0 was kind of a fluke.”
Schaneman and his crew knew that their weekend contests against Dickinson would present a much bigger challenge than much of their past competitions, but were ready to see how they would measure up against the Rough Riders.
“Their coaches said they were pretty young for their division, but they are still very good,” Schaneman declared. “It was good for our kids to play a very solid team, and we played respectively well on Saturday.”
Tystad was the starting pitcher in the first contest and, according to Schaneman, threw five innings of really solid baseball. However, in the sixth and final inning, Dickinson took advantage of fatigue on Tystad’s part coupled with errors by the team as a whole to cruise to a 10-0 victory.
“We were losing 4-0 going into the sixth, and Peyton started losing a little velocity at that point,” Schaneman admitted. “They scored some runs and we made some errors behind them. The score got out of hand at that point and they 10-runned us.”
In the second game, Ostenson started as pitcher, and though he gave up a couple runs in the second inning, Newcastle jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning. The Longhorns were still up 4-2 going into the sixth inning, and that’s when Schaneman made a pitching change.
“Cade had thrown quite a few balls and he had to work because they were some pretty good hitters,” he began. “We put Sawyer in, and he threw well but had some walks. They also had some hits and there were some errors behind that which allowed the Rough Riders to score five runs.”
Dickinson closed out the inning, and the game, with a 7-4 lead to take their second win of the day.
“It was a good game, our kids made quite a few great plays and they played hard,” Schaneman declared. “It would have been nice to steal one from a really good team, but it was still great to see them play well.”
On Sunday, Williams got the call to the hill in the first game of the day. Though he threw pretty solid, the Rough Riders were hitting the ball well and started doing so right off the bat. They scored three or four runs in the first inning, and it just kept going. Unfortunately, Newcastle didn’t have an answer for their opponent who would once again ten-run rule Schaneman’s crew with a score of 13-3.
In the final game of the weekend, Stevens began the contest on the mound. Dickinson was hot at-bat once again, scoring seven runs in the first inning and would go on to take the 13-3 victory over Newcastle for the second time that day.
“At that point, we didn’t have a lot of guys who have a lot of pitching experience,” Schaneman frowned. “Nolan Turner got a turn for a couple of innings and threw well. After that, Gavin Roady went in to throw a couple of innings, and in the last inning, Big Dayton Williams went in for a chance to throw. He’s been throwing hard in practice but we had never tried him in a game, and he did a pretty good job.”
This week, the Longhorns will travel to Douglas on Thursday and then head Buffalo for a wood bat tournament on Saturday and Sunday. The Longhorns play Lander first and then if they win they play Gillette Varsity in the second game. These are the only two teams that have beat Newcastle in their division. Buffalo, Worland, Cheyenne, and Casper will also be in attendance.