The Council Grove baseball team opened its season Tuesday by dropping both ends of a doubleheader at Wamego.
The Braves came out on the short end of a 12-11 slugfest in Game One. Falling behind 6-0 after two innings, Council Grove came back with two runs in each of the next three innings to tie the score at 6.
A five-run top of the seventh put the Braves up 11-7 and made it look as if they might start the season off 1-0. Travis LeMay doubled with two outs, Logan Kohler reached on an error and Dusty Maas walked. Collin Johnson and Derek Ziegenhirt followed with back-to-back run-scoring singles, and Sean Carr doubled home two runs. But Wamego came back with five runs of their own to pull off the one-run win as Braves reliever Broc Finch took the loss.
Council Grove made six errors in the second game and lost 8-3. A four-run fifth inning that included a couple of infield errors doomed the Braves. Ziegenhirt drove in two runs for Council Grove on a pair of sacrifice flies.
“I really felt pretty good about the way we played, especially through the middle innings, and especially when you figure we haven’t practiced much,” Braves coach Joe Buchanan said. “I wish we had competed better in Game Two. We got mentally down there for a stretch, but all in all, we played OK.”
Council Grove will next host Chase County for a doubleheader next Tuesday.