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Blue Springs, MO —
When Corbin Hare is on the mound, he would rather have a designated hitter go to the plate for him.
But he was in the batting order Thursday. And that turned out to be a very good thing for the Blue Springs Wildcats. Hare, who plays first base when he isn’t pitching, slugged a pair of home runs and drove in four runs to lead the Wildcats to an 8-3 come-from-behind victory over visiting Fort Osage.
Hare drilled a solo homer in the second inning and then broke the game open with a three-run shot in the sixth inning. Brian Burasco also homered for the 3-2 Wildcats.
“I usually don’t like to hit when I’m pitching,” said Hare, who loaded the bases in the first inning but pitched out of that jam. “But I really enjoy hitting, and I’ll do anything I can to help us win.”
He pitched into the fourth inning, when he was relieved by Bill Slivinski, who didn’t allow a run in two-plus innings to pick up the win.
“Slivinski has done that for us all season,” Wildcats coach Marc Hines said. “He’s our bridge guy between the starter and our closer and he does a great job.”
The senior reliever was thrilled to pick up his first varsity win.
“If I can keep the game close between our starter and our closer then I feel like I’ve done my job,” Slivinski said. “This was a big win. We trailed most of the game, but found a way to come back and win it.”
For four innings, Fort Osage starter Alex Merithew was on cruise control, allowing only Hare’s solo homer in the second inning.
An error paved the way to Blue Springs’ two-run fifth inning as Burasco followed the infield miscue with a homer. The Indians also committed an error to open the five-run sixth inning, when Hare hit the three-run blast.
David Stober drove home the go-ahead run for the Wildcats with an RBI single.
“We didn’t help Alex out much today,” Fort Osage coach Chris Walker said after the Indians fell to 4-5. “When I took him out of the game, I told him that he did his job and we let him down.
“You can’t give a good team like Blue Springs extra outs or it’s going to come back and haunt you.”
When Corbin Hare is on the mound, he would rather have a designated hitter go to the plate for him.
But he was in the batting order Thursday. And that turned out to be a very good thing for the Blue Springs Wildcats. Hare, who plays first base when he isn’t pitching, slugged a pair of home runs and drove in four runs to lead the Wildcats to an 8-3 come-from-behind victory over visiting Fort Osage.
Hare drilled a solo homer in the second inning and then broke the game open with a three-run shot in the sixth inning. Brian Burasco also homered for the 3-2 Wildcats.
“I usually don’t like to hit when I’m pitching,” said Hare, who loaded the bases in the first inning but pitched out of that jam. “But I really enjoy hitting, and I’ll do anything I can to help us win.”
He pitched into the fourth inning, when he was relieved by Bill Slivinski, who didn’t allow a run in two-plus innings to pick up the win.
“Slivinski has done that for us all season,” Wildcats coach Marc Hines said. “He’s our bridge guy between the starter and our closer and he does a great job.”
The senior reliever was thrilled to pick up his first varsity win.
“If I can keep the game close between our starter and our closer then I feel like I’ve done my job,” Slivinski said. “This was a big win. We trailed most of the game, but found a way to come back and win it.”
For four innings, Fort Osage starter Alex Merithew was on cruise control, allowing only Hare’s solo homer in the second inning.
An error paved the way to Blue Springs’ two-run fifth inning as Burasco followed the infield miscue with a homer. The Indians also committed an error to open the five-run sixth inning, when Hare hit the three-run blast.
David Stober drove home the go-ahead run for the Wildcats with an RBI single.
“We didn’t help Alex out much today,” Fort Osage coach Chris Walker said after the Indians fell to 4-5. “When I took him out of the game, I told him that he did his job and we let him down.
“You can’t give a good team like Blue Springs extra outs or it’s going to come back and haunt you.”
The Indians took a 2-1 lead in the top of the third inning on a walk, a hit batter, an RBI single by Ryan Stick and infield ground out by Chad Sutton.
Fort Osage padded its lead to 3-1 in the top of the fourth on an error, hit batter and a Drew Standifer RBI single.
“We kind of evened out the runs on the errors because we gave them a run and they gave us a couple of runs,” Hines said. “I was really pleased with how our guys never gave up against a kid who was throwing a heck of a game.
“We hung in there and got some timely hits that led to the win.”
