| Consolation Game :: @ McCall Memorial :: One Game | ||
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VS. |
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| (3-2)
Bamford Bears
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(2-3)
Merrimack Owls
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Battle Of The (Third and Fourth) Best
McCall – When the Merrimack Owls and the Bamford Bears meet on Wednesday night to play the consolation game of the I-70 Baseball Classic the sparse crowd in McCall will be witnessing the remainder of two “could have been’s” and a whole lot of missed opportunity by these two formerly top ranked teams. Both were favored to win their parings last week in the first round of the playoffs and both had their seasons swept away in two games in disappointing performances.
“I felt like it was over before it began,” said Owls manager Ed Bailey by telephone yesterday. “…I don’t know, we got just about every player that was high on our draft chart. Guys that have won a lot of games with us here in Merrimack… We just got a really tough draw in that first round with that Fleas team. When you score 17 and loose it is a pretty tough break.”
“The stuff that I take responsibility for is the errors in the field, the silly base running mistakes and some of the bad situational hitting. My team should be better prepared than that … I did not get the job done,” said Bailey.
The press in Merrimack has had a “love/hate” relationship with Bailey since he took the helm from fan favorite Frankie Frisch eight years ago. Winning three titles in his tenure with the team has kept the critics at bay but with each failure to deliver a title ownership gets more public pressure to dump Bailey and bring new life to the organization and more of a focus on fundamentals. A quiet leader, Bailey is polite, open, and laid-back and is accused of not having the “fire” to motivate his players during practice and drills. It was rumored that he was considering stepping down after his team struck out a record 101 times in this years KCBL, but success in the playoffs gave Bailey renewed passion.
A third place finish would be the Bears highest in a Classic after placing in the bottom half of the field in the ASB Classic the last two years.
