BURLINGTON — While Humboldt High came up short on the scoreboard Thursday, “games like this will only make us better,” head baseball coach Mike Miller said.
The Cubs ran into the pitching of Burlington’s Mickey Carlson in game one of their doubleheader.
Carlson tossed a complete-game no-hitter as the Wildcats scratched across runs in the first, third and sixth innings to win, 3-0.
Humboldt’s bats came to life in Game 2. Problem was, Burlington had already taken advantage of some walks and errors and was well on the way to a 7-5 victory.
The losses snapped an eight-game winning streak for Humboldt.
Miller said Carlson’s ability to keep the count down in the strike zone was paramount.
“He did a great job of really hitting his spots,” Miller said. “We hit everything right at them and he forced us into some weak contact as well.”
Humboldt’s pitchers, Logan Page and Kyler Isbell, were no slouches, either, limiting Burlington to four hits.
“They did a great job of keeping us in the game,” Miller said. “We just couldn’t generate anything offensively.”
A Humboldt error, a walk and a sacrifice fly gave Burlington a 1-0 lead.
Hunter Reiling drove in Burlington’s second run in the bottom of the third.
The third tally came in after Humboldt was called for a balk with a runner on third in the sixth.
Humboldt had only one baserunner, Isbell, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth. Carlson induced a double-play grounder two batters later to end the inning.
Page gave up one hit over 2.2 innings with a pair of strikeouts. Isbell threw 3.1 innings, surrendering three hits and striking out four.
As an aside, Carlson has a connection to the Humboldt High program. His father, Denton, is a Humboldt graduate.
