Lima Locos outfielder Sebastian Alexander doubled, scored two runs and drove in two runs in the Locos’ 12-4 win over the Xenia Scouts on Friday night at Simmons Field.
After a disappointing loss on Thursday night, the Lima Locos bounced back in a big way with a 12-4 win over the Xenia Scouts in a Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League game at Simmons Field on Friday night.
The Locos (14-11) scored four runs in the first inning. They had 13 hits, led by Blake Bowen, who went 3 for 5, and four players with two hits — Liam Richards, Kaden Brown, Brooks Wright and Landon Tate.
It was just what was needed after a 9-2 loss to Muskegon on Thursday night in which the Locos had only two hits and the defense committed four errors.
“When we come to the field ready to play and relaxed and have energy this is the type of team we are,” Locos coach Chad Ehrnsberger said. “Conversely, last night we didn’t have any of that.
“I’m just trying to get these guys to understand that things like your motivation and all that stuff kind of determines how you play. That was the message, we’ve got to find a way to come out with that mindset every game.
“We are so talented, maybe they take things for granted, whereas some other (Locos) teams in the past have had to fight tooth and nail to get to where they wanted to be. I’ve been saying all year we’ve got the talent here to win, it’s just a matter of making sure we’re in the right frame of mind when it’s game time,” he said.
Lincolnview’s Dane Ebel, a sophomore at Lincoln Trail College, got his first win of the season. He started and pitched five innings, allowed three hits, struck out four and walked three.
Four of Xenia’s first five batters in the first inning reached base and the Scouts took a 1-0 lead. But over the next 4 1/3 innings Ebel gave up only one hit and three baserunners.
“It’s one of my better outings of the summer. Other than the first inning it was really good,” Ebel said. “The first inning was kind of all over the place but I got in my groove and figured it out. It was just a mechanical issue and I got more comfortable out there.”
Ehrnsberger said, “He threw well. He’s got good enough stuff to always keep us in the game. He looked good out there tonight.”
The Locos responded to Xenia’s first-inning run with four runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning.
Justin Gorski led off with an infield single, Richards singled and Bowen reached base on a fielder’s choice and Gorski scored on a throwing error on that same play for the Locos’ first run.
Alexander doubled to make it 3-1 and a fourth run scored on Wright’s double. The Locos added two runs in the third inning, two runs in the fourth inning, three runs in the seventh inning and one run in the eighth inning.
First baseman Will Lawrence went 2 for 4 and had a two-run home run in the sixth inning for Xenia (10-15).
