Loggers fall on the road to Lakers, 11-3

Oliver Grupenhoff hit three-for-four in Libby’s road outing against Kalispell Wednesday night, but it wasn’t enough to lift the struggling Loggers over the Lakers. Kalispell won the game, 11-3.

“We are still making some mistakes on routine plays and we aren’t doing a lot of little things to keep base-runners out of scoring position,” manager Kelly Morford said. “It seemed like every time we opened the door for them, and they were able to take advantage. Give credit to Kalispell for their timely hitting, but on the other hand they shouldn’t have had many of the opportunities they did.”

Grupenhoff was responsible for bringing in two of the Loggers’ three runs in the game, hitting singles in the first and seventh inning and a double in the fifth.

Dylon Lane was assessed the loss for the game, giving up six runs in four innings with two walks and one strike-out. Morford was impressed with his overall performance, despite the loss.

“Dylon had his best outing of the year on the hill,” he said. “He had a really solid start and was really able to mix up his pitches well. As a whole, we are doing a better job of being more consistent with our secondary pitches, so that is encouraging.”

The loss leaves the Loggers struggling with a 1-6 record for the young season, with conference games starting this weekend. Morford said his team needs to step up as the conference schedule begins.

“We have had a slower start than we wanted, but the good news is that none of those games were conference,” he said. “That all changes on Sunday when we head down to play the Bucs. We need to step up the level of performance heading into this stretch of league games.”