Plenty of positives in Bucktail baseball’s 14-4 season opening loss at Millville
By Bees O’Brien
MILLVILLE- Last season the Bucktail baseball team was no-hit in their season opener against Millville. 2024’s season opening results may have seen the Quakers pick up a big win, but there were plenty of positive signs that first-year head coach Casey Friese would see.
“We haven’t lasted this long in a game against Millville in a number of years.” Said Friese following the Mid Penn Conference loss. “It was a positive day, We hit the ball hard. Some of it was first game jitters that will get cleaned up at home.”
The Bucks would collect 7 hits over the course of six innings. Millville would do damage in the second and third innings by tallying up three runs in each and taking the 6-0 lead.
Bucktail threatened in every inning. Braylon Fantaski’s single in the top of the first inning and a Keller Friese double in the second inning would be null for the Bucks as they failed to manufacture any runs in either inning.
The Bucks would finally cross the plate and cut the gap to 6-3 in their half of the fourth inning, but the Quakers would tack on two more in the bottom of the inning to hold an 8-3 lead.
Millville’s lead grew to 11-3 following a three-run fifth inning, but Bucktail would not go away. The visitors would add another run in the top of the sixth inning.
The Quakers would put away Bucktail in their half of the sixth inning with a three-run burst to set the final at 14-4.
“There were a lot of good things that are apparent.” Added Friese “Things coaches look at. There’s some things we missed too, but we’ll clean them up.”
Keller Friese led Bucktail at the plate with a pair of hits, including his second inning double and an RBI. Braylon Fantaski, Brett Mason, Johnny Green, Ethan Kalafut and Gavin Pick all had singles for the Bucks. Kalafut, Xander Shearer and Ethan Charcalla each collected RBI’s for the Bucks.
Bucktail (0-1, 0-1) will get a chance to clean things up in Farwell on Tuesday when they meet another Mid Penn foe in St. John Neumann. Game time is set for 4:30pm. Their game with Northern Potter, slated for tomorrow at noon was postponed due to incoming weather.
Millville improved to 1-1 on the season and 1-0 in Mid Penn play.
