HUMBOLDT — Humboldt High’s baseball team dropped to .500 on the season Thursday, after a pair of late Burlington rallies were enough to sweep past the Cubs.
Humboldt dropped to 6-6 with the 8-5 and 14-1 defeats.
“Once again, we put ourselves in position to win a game but let it slip away late,” Cub head coach Mike Miller said. “We have to find a way to make plays in big situations.”
Humboldt took a 5-2 lead in game one, on the heels of a five-run third inning, with a pair of RBIs from Evan Lucke, and one RBI each from Gavin Page, Trey Sommer and Trenton Heisler. Burlington responded with one in the fourth and two in the fifth to tie the score.
A three-run Wildcat rally in the sixth was the difference.
Heisler had a pair of hits, while Page, Lucke and Hunter Bauer all had one hit apiece.
Page took the loss despite giving up only two hits and two earned runs in five innings. He struck out six and walked six. Lucke gave a hit in one-third of an inning, while Bauer struck out four in his relief appearance.
The Cub pitchers combined to walk 10 batters, and Humboldt fielders committed nine errors in the contest.
SAM HULL got the pitching nod in the nightcap, and struck out seven in 4 2/3 innings, allowing five hits. He, too, was victimized by Cub errors afield. Humboldt had eight errors in the second contest.
That allowed Burlington to extend a 3-0 lead with four in fifth.
Sommer drove in Jack White in the bottom of the fifth to close the gap to 7-1, but Burlington responded with two in the sixth and five in the seventh to seal the win.
“Sam threw really well,” Miller said. “We just couldn’t get anything going at the plate to give him any run support.”
