In the Media: North Marion spoils Canby's opener with late comeback
CANBY -- Everything was cruising along the right way for the Canby baseball team in coach Scott Ackerman's debut.
The Cougars held a commanding six-run lead heading into the final inning. Senior pitcher Adam Bell was working on a no-hitter through six innings, mixing in strikeouts and putting trust into his defense.
However, things fell appart pretty quickly as North Marion rallied with eight runs in the seventh to post an 8-6 victory over Canby on Thursday in preseason action at Canby High School.
"Lesson learned is we got very comfortable with a six-run lead and guys just got complacent," Ackerman said. "And they obviously came back and one error led to another and the floodgates opened. It's the game of baseball."
North Marion saw its first seven batters reach base in the seventh.
Kip Pearson had a two-run single to cut the deficit to 6-5, and would later score off a wild pitch to tie the game.
The Huskies' Chandler Willcuts then laced a two-run double to score the go-ahead runs to cap a shocking -- and yet, satisfying -- inning for North Marion (1-1 overall).
"To have a comeback win this early in the season is really important," North Marion coach Randy Brack said. "To be down 6-0 with no hits going into the seventh is even more impressive.
"We had some kids that went into the game late and stepped up and did a great job for us and had some really good at-bats in some clutch situations, so that was real nice to see."
Brack felt his team had hit balls pretty hard through the first six innings, but Canby's defense continued to field well.
But when the pressure heightened on the Cougars' defense to make plays in a muddy and sloppy field due to the rain, they could not stop the Huskies' momentum.
"We got some balls that went through for hits and we had some balls that had eyes on them and made it real tough for them to field," Brack said. "They couldn't pick it up and all of a sudden, the snowball kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. In those cases, it's tough to stop that and stop the momentum. Luckily for us, we kept it going."
Ackerman said it was a hard lesson to learn for his team this early.
"Somebody has to make a great play and steup up," he said. "At the end there, we had a lot of balls and no one stepped up and made that big play for Adam, who had a no-hitter going. You need to take that stuff seriously and get him that, and shut that game down."
The Cougars (0-1) took a 2-0 lead in the third inning when junior Danny Perman had an RBI double to score senior justin Leuck.
Leuck later scored off an error when senior Brandon Harms reached on a bunt single. Canby tacked on one run in the fourth off senior Taylor Hein's home run to right-center field.
The Cougars scored three more in the fifth after Bell's RBI sacrifice fly to score Perman. Harms then scored off a wild pitch, and Hein had an RBI single to score senior Brady Thompson.
"These guys need to know when it's time to shut it down," Ackerman said. "We've got to shut it down, and even a smaller school like that, that has great ability and awesome coaching -- they're going to come back and bite you if you let them loose.
"I'm actually kind of happy that this went down because now it's a great tool going into spring break on our trip and these guys will know now not to let up."
The Cougars will head to the Crater tournament Monday through Thursday. They will face Barlow on Monday at 4 p.m., Crater on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and McKay on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Pool play takes place Thursday.
North Marion hosts its own tournament Tuesday and Wednesday.