Blue Mountain Cleans Up On Nic Baseball

Usually following North Idaho College baseball games, Cardinals’ players armed with rakes filter out on the diamond to tidy up the field.

In the aftermath of NIC’s 10-3, 13-8 losses to Blue Mountain on “Blue Wednesday,” Card coach Jack Bloxom instructed his players to “get the hell away from here.”

Yes, it was that bad.

NIC had fielding errors, throwing errors, mental errors, allowed walks and committed a balk. The Cardinals’ offense left the bases clogged with runners because clutch hits were scarce.

“I told ‘em to get out of here, just get away from that field,” said Bloxom, whose slumping club is 6-8 but has lost seven straight. “I really don’t know what to say. We had our best practice all year (on Tuesday).”

It didn’t carry over. It was Blue Mountain’s season debut, but NIC was the club that looked rusty.

In the opener, sophomore pitcher Jason Bowles was belted for six hits in two-plus innings. He left NIC in a 7-0 hole that soon became 9-0 in the third.

Reflective of NIC’s oft-mindless play, Bowles didn’t cover home after a wild pitch, allowing a Timberwolf runner to score from third base uncontested. Yanked later in the inning, a disgusted Bowles may have fired his hardest pitch of the day when he slammed his glove against the dugout wall.

NIC’s 3-4-5 hitters, Tristan Fike, Chris McGregor and Evan Metz, went 1 for 12, often stranding runners in scoring position.

“We throw it high and they hit the hell out of it,” Bloxom said. “They throw it high and we pop it up.”

In the second game, shortened to five innings due to dwindling daylight, NIC led 6-4 after two innings as Josh Martin had a pair of singles to drive in three runs.

The remainder of the game was devoted to Blue Mountain highlights. They tied it at 6-6 in the fourth and then piled up seven runs in the fifth.

Metz’s homered in the bottom of the fifth, but NIC left the bases loaded when Steve Schorzman fanned and clean-up hitter Fike popped out.