Mustangs win two of three against Evanston, fall to Pocatello

The Lovell Mustangs journeyed to Uinta County Friday and Saturday and split a pair of doubleheaders.

Friday, the Mustangs split a conference doubleheader with the host Evanston Outlaws, winning the first game 4-1 and falling 4-2 in game two.

Saturday, the Mustangs topped Evanston 7-4 in a non-conference game and fell to the visiting Class AA Pocatello Post 4 Runnin’ Rebels 19-6.

“The first three games featured mostly well-played baseball for both teams,” Lovell manager Michael Jameson said.

“Yeah, we had some low scoring, pretty clean baseball, with quick, flying games,” Jameson said. “I think that first game took like an hour and a half, and we just kind of cruised right through. I think overall, we played some pretty good baseball over the weekend.”

Young pitcher Kannon Owens threw a gem in game one Friday, allowing just one run in 6 1/3 innings of work on four hits and three walks while striking out six. Tucker Jackson recorded the final two outs.

“He did another phenomenal job for us, coming out and just throwing strikes and putting the ball in play, and we had a solid defense behind him for the most part,” Jameson said. “The biggest thing that has led to a lot of success for Kannon is just limiting the walks and the extra free passes. And he did a good job with three walks and just the four hits and mixing some strikeouts in there. He’s done a great job pitching in some big games for us so far already.”

Lovell scored all four runs in the second inning on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Owens, a wild pitch, a single by Dax Mangus and sacrifice fly off the bat of Mac Morgan. Evanston scored one in the top of the seventh before Jackson snuffed the rally.

“It was kind of a change of pace for us as opposed to those last four games we played before going down there, where we kind of piled the hits on and scored a lot of runs,” Jameson said. “We were able to take advantage of them walking us and putting guys on and finding ways to score runs. We just had the two hits, but we ended up finding a way to get those runs in and, as well as Kannon pitched, it was enough to hold up.”

Game two was a nail-biter. Evanston scored one run in the bottom of the second, and Lovell tied the score on a solo home run by Jackson in the top of the fourth.

The Outlaws plated a run in the bottom of the fourth, but Lovell again responded with a run in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by Cash Wassmer, tying the score 2-2. Evanston plated one run in the bottom of the fifth and another in the sixth, and this time the Mustangs were unable to rally, making the final score 4-2.

Jackson started on the mound and took the loss, allowing three runs, two earned, in 4 2/3 innings on five hits and seven walks, fanning five. Alex Hedges finished up, allowing one run in the final inning and a third on a hit and a walk while fanning three.

Mangus led the Lovell offense with three hits.

“It was another pretty clean baseball game, 4-2, and pretty equal across the board,” Jameson said. “I think we both had six hits. We had a couple of errors that led to a run or two from them. Tucker came out and gave us a good start. He kind of struggled with a few too many walks, and I think that was partly because we rolled him over from that first game, having him close that one and start that second game. That’s a lot to ask. Offensively, we struggled to put a lot of runs on the board. That’s partly due to facing a high-quality team, and sometimes that’s just baseball.”

Saturday games

Evanston blanked the Mustangs for six innings Saturday and led 4-0, but the Mustangs exploded for seven runs in the top of the seventh. Wassmer ripped a two-run double during the rally, and both Rocco Rael and Cove Jolley drew bases-loaded walks.

The Mustangs had only four hits in the game, but they drew nine walks. Wassmer started on the hill and threw four innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits and a walk, striking out six. Hedges relieved and threw the final three frames, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks, fanning six.

“We didn’t have the best weekend hitting the baseball,” Jameson noted. “We had no hits up until maybe the fifth inning. We were able to have a big rally there in the top of the seventh, and it was a good come-from-behind win after not a whole lot of success up until those later innings.”

A talented Pocatello squad had too much firepower for the Mustangs in game two Saturday.  The game was close for a few innings, as Pocatello led 2-0 after four innings. But the Runnin’ Rebels exploded for eight runs in the fifth and nine in the sixth. Lovell scored three in the fifth and sixth, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stay in the game.

Files started and allowed two runs in four innings, but Pocatello got to relievers Morgan and Kyle Wilson for the final 17 runs in the 19-6 win. Wassmer had three hits for the Mustangs, and Jackson drove in three runs on a pair of hits. Rael had two hits and an RBI.

“It just kind of came off the rails a little bit, and we had some mistakes,” Jameson said. “And then it was a situation where they really felt like they needed to pour it on us for whatever reason and run it up.”

Coming up

The Mustangs hosted Riverton Wednesday for a conference doubleheader and will host the Powell Pioneers for a pair Friday at 5 p.m., then travel to Cody for two on Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m. All six games are conference games, Jameson said.

“Within the next two weeks, we’ll have a pretty good idea of where we’re sitting,” Jameson noted.