Rosetown A's Round-up: A Pair of 5-4 Losses

It was deja vu for the the Rosetown A's amateur baseball team this week at Dunning Field in St. Paul.

For the second consecutive game, the A's saw its lead evaporate in the final inning when they lost to the Eastside Merchants, 5-4, on Thursday night. Two nights earlier, the A's lost by the same 5-4 score to the Shamrocks.

“We were poised to win, but they [the Merchants] put the ball in play,” A's player-coach Scott Phiffer said.

The A's 4-1 lead disappeared rapidly in the bottom of the seventh after the Merchants put two runners on base with no outs. A's pitcher Matt Mayr struck out the next batter, but then the A's surrendered a RBI single.

The A's defense held the next batter to a fly out to center field, but the Merchants loaded the bases the next time up.

Mayer had to throw in the strike zone from there on out, and the Merchants capitalized with a hit to deep center field, which brought home the tying and winning runs.

“We just didn't have it working for us in the final inning,” A's catcher Zach Wiesner said. “We had the pitcher behind in the count, and there's not much you can do but throw strikes.”

The A's had the game under control for most of the first six innings. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, and they tacked on another two in the third. Matt Busch scored two of the four runs for the A's. In addition, the defense and pitching held the Merchants in check.

“We made most of the plays we needed to make,” A's second baseman Josh Dishop said.

A throw to home in the fourth inning kept the game at 4-1 after the Merchants put their first run across. Mayr struck out a batter to close the sixth inning with two runners on and two outs.

“We were pitching well and had solid defense,” Dishop said. “Their batting cost us the game.”

The A's had showed signs of improvement during the last four games, however. They have posted a 1-3 record in the past week, and two of those losses were by a run each. Prior to that stretch, the A's mustered two runs in three games.

“At the beginning of July, we weren't able to score runs, but we're scoring runs now,” Wiesner said. “Now, the problem is that we can't close out the game.”

The loss drops the A's to 7-14 overall and 5-10 in the Saint Paul League.

The A's will get another chance to put up more runs and finish strong when they play Sport & Spine at Midway Stadium on Saturday at noon. Then, the A's will conclude the weekend at Midway with a game against B Package at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

“We would love to get a string of wins together before the playoffs come,” Phiffer said.