A two-out rally to remember

Blooming Prairie baseball found itself with just one hit and trailing 3-0 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning against the Randolph Rockets at home last week, but the Awesome Blossoms showed just how dangerous they can be at a moment’s notice by pulling off the 4-3 comeback win.

A mixture of walks, timely hits and two critical errors by the Rockets’ defense resulted in the most dramatic wins the Awesome Blossoms have had in recent memory.

“The game is never over – and it goes both ways. Whether you’re up or down, it’s not over until it’s over. We were saying that in the dugout like, ‘hey, we’re not done yet.’ The biggest part was that our kids actually believed it,” said Blooming Prairie head coach Matt Kittelson on his team’s comeback effort.

With one out left in the game, Blooming Prairie’s sixth and seventh hitters, Elliot Gimbel and Bradley Boyd, ignited the rally with a pair of nail-biting at-bats.

Gimbel was able to draw a walk on a 3-2 count to bring Boyd up to the plate where the latter was tasked with keeping his team’s hopes alive, despite some recent struggles at the plate.

The senior outfielder had yet to record a hit in his first five games, but he got exactly what he was looking for on the first pitch and drove a ball to left field for a two-out double that advanced Gimbel to third.

“The first thing that came to mind was how proud of him I am. He came back out [for baseball] after being on the track team the past two years. I told him, ‘I’m not worried about you in the field, but hitting after two years off is not going to come back right away.’ Each game he got closer. It was a progression, and to come up with a hit in a situation like that was awesome. He was still smiling on Friday about it,” said Kittelson.

Jaxon Studer followed Boyd and earned another walk on a 3-2 count to load the bases for nine hitter Kelvin McCarthy.

McCarthy looked at a first-pitch strike but put the second ball in play to Rockets’ shortstop Frankie Novak, who made a crucial throwing error that allowed Gimbel and Boyd to score with Studer advancing to third and McCarthy settling at second.

The play cut the Rockets’ lead to 3-2 as Blooming Prairie’s lineup reset to leadoff hitter Gabe Staloch.

Randolph elected to walk Staloch on four pitches, loading the bases and bringing Carsten Ingvalson to the plate.
“We have confidence in all our kids, but you know, obviously you feel better when the top of the lineup comes up - especially Carsten. He means so much to our program. I told him, ‘you just have to put the ball in play.’ He’s played so much baseball that he knows he didn’t have to do anything really special, just put the ball in play and make a play,” said Kittelson on Ingvalson’s at bat.

Ingvalson brought the count to 1-1 before ripping a ball to shortstop where Randolph’s Novak made the final error that sealed the Rockets’ fate.

A rushed throw sailed past the Rockets’ first baseman and allowed Ingvalson to reach base safely while Studer and McCarthy both scored, ending the game in a 4-3 win for Blooming Prairie following the walk-off, two-run error.

“I told Chad [Gimbel] in the dugout the thing about [Randolph] that makes them so good is that they don’t ever make mistakes. And then in the bottom of the seventh they made two, so we got a little bit of help. Sometimes that’s all you need,” said Kittelson.

The Awesome Blossoms’ comeback moved the team’s record to 5-1 on the season and earned the team another pivotal Gopher Conference win.

Blooming Prairie’s next game will be at home against USC on Thursday, April 23 at 4:30 p.m.

Player Stats

vs. Randolph

                        H    R    RBI              

Boyd                1    1    0                 

DenHerder        1    0    0                 

Gimbel              0    1    0                 

Studer              0    1    0                 

McCarthy          0    1    0                 

                                IP   H    R    ER  K    BB

Lee                   6    0    1    1    11   4

B. Ingvalson      1    2    2    2    1    0