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Sports

Simley Drops to 0-4 After Thursday Loss to Henry Sibley

Too many errors and little offense doomed the Spartans in a Classic Suburban Conference tilt.

The Simley High School Spartans couldn't get timely hits and made several costly errors in a 10-1 loss to visiting Henry Sibley on Thursday.

The Henry Sibley Warriors (2-2) scored early and often and led 4-0 in the second inning, 7-0 in the third and 9-1 after four.

Simley fell to 0-4 on the season.

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“After the game we just talked about some mental errors as it relates to fielding, where to go with the ball, keeping the ball down on the ground,” Simley coach Stanley Winnie said. “We’ve been hitting a lot of pop flies and we need to work on that.”

Junior pitcher Spencer Brooks got things started for Henry Sibley in the first with a two-out home run. The Warriors pushed their lead to 4-0 in the second. After loading the bases, Sibley scored three on a sacrifice, an error and another sacrifice.

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With a 4-0 lead and the Sibley defense playing well behind him, Brooks didn’t allow a Simley base runner past second until the fourth inning.

Sibley scored three more runs in the top of the third, combining sacrifice hits with Simley errors to extend their lead.

Trailing 9-0, Simley looked like they might close the gap in the bottom of the fourth, loading the bases with none out. But Cody Dock’s infield hit was turned into an out at the plate by Sibley catcher Carlos Morales. A ground ball hit by Mark Millerbernd went for an out at second but scored a run for Simley as Sibley couldn’t turn the double play. Simley then popped up to Brooks to end the inning.

Sibley outhit Simley 10-3 in the contest. The Spartans also hurt their own cause by committing five errors.

“We played the game more clean than we’ve played it in the last couple of games,”  Henry Sibley coach Greg Fehrman said. “We put the ball across the plate. Made the plays that we’re supposed to make, got the outs that we’re supposed to get. Then we went up and battled at the plate. Any time you do those things you’ve got a chance to win the game.”

Brooks scored three runs and went 2-for-3 at bat, including his solo home run.

Simley’s Cody Dock pitched much of the game, until sophomore Logan Busch came in to pitch relief in the sixth.

Winnie said he was pleased with Busch's effort.

“I was happiest with our sophomore pitcher who came in in relief and only gave up a couple of runs. That was a pretty good deal,” said Winnie. “[I'm] disappointed with the things we continue to focus on in practice and kind of forget in the game."

Simley next game pits them against North High School at 4:15pm on Monday.

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