May 29/14

Derek Martin 
Posted May. 29, 2014 @ 10:37 am 

CROOKSTON

The Crookston Reds baseball team rallied back from an early 5-0 deficit Wednesday in a Northwest Border League game against the Thief River Falls Thieves at Jim Karn Field, but Crookston never could grab a lead and Thief River Falls held on for a 7-6 victory.

The Thieves pounced on Reds starter Josh Edlund early, scoring two in the first inning and three more in the second.

"Josh didn't have his stuff yesterday," Reds player/coach Justin Johnson said. "That happens sometimes. You couldn't ask for better timely hitting from Thief River Falls. It was a little bit frustrating but, at the same time, that's how the cookie crumbles.

"Josh, I don't know if he pitched at all last year," Johnson continued. "I'm not sure when the last time he started. He'll be better as the season goes on. Down the stretch he'll be one of our better pitchers."

Crookston chipped away, scoring two runs in the fourth inning and one in the sixth to make it 5-3. The Reds then cut it to one when the Thieves scored one in the seventh but the Reds answered with two. Thief River Falls scored the game-winning run in the eighth. Crookston got one in the bottom of the eighth but couldn't find the tying run.

Taylor Morlan came in to relieve Edlund, pitching 6 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits and striking out six. Seth Desrosier pitched the final 1 1/3 innings with three strikeouts.

"Can you ask for anything better from that kid right now?" Johnson said of Morlan. "I talked to Taylor between the seventh and eighth innings. He was throwing so darn well, we were down, Taylor was getting worn down and you could see it. 'Let me go,' he said. That's what I wanted to hear from him. He got the first two outs and we had him on a short leash. Seth came in and shut it down."

The Reds bats were working Wednesday, pounding out nine hits with Dave Grabowski leading the way with two, including a double off the left field wall. Parker Epema made his Reds debut and recorded a double in his lone at bat, driving in two runs. Brandon Kresl had the Reds' other RBI, going 1-of-2 at the plate.

"For Parker Epema to be sitting on the bench, I told him to be ready to hit," Johnson said. "We had runners in scoring position in the fourth and I told him to pinch hit and he whipped the ball up the middle. That was a huge at bat.

"We are cranking the ball around right now," Johnson said of his team's nine hits. "We can't seem to string two or three hits around now. We made some mistakes and we'll learn from that stuff. You don't want to be learning in a league game but you learn early in the season so that pays off at the end of the year. It was a crappy loss at home in a league game. This will make us a better team at the end of the year, I guarantee you that."

The Reds didn't commit an error and have just one in the two games this season.

"The defense right now is pretty stellar," Johnson said. "We are not giving them extra outs. Our sticks are going to come around. When they find it we are going to be scary."

Now 1-1, the Reds will host the Ada Athletics in a non-league game Saturday with the first pitch set or 7 p.m. at Jim Karn Field. On Sunday the Reds host the Roseau Royals in league play. The first game of the twin bill starts at 2 p.m.