The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Looking to find their groove
by Than Acuff
While the Crested Butte Blue Jackets continue to struggle in the win column, keep in mind that they are young, they have been missing players and their preseason workouts were somewhat limited due to the May snows and mid-season fine-tuning truncated by June rains.
The team does have a win and should, by the end of the season, tally a few more, as it is obvious they are gaining steam with each outing. Granted, they just dropped their last game to Surface Creek on Sunday 13-1, but it wasn’t without some glimmers of hope.
Once again the Blue Jackets were down to nine players for the game and one coach as summer break wreaks havoc upon the Crested Butte team. Seve Petersen took the mound for the Blue Jackets and did what he does best; he threw strikes. Surface Creek poked a couple of base hits to score two runs in the top of the first inning but the Blue Jackets responded in the bottom of the inning as Turner Petersen walked and scored on a single by Aiden Gundersen.
The Blue Jackets defense then backed Petersen up in the top of the second inning as catcher Joseph Cummins chased down a power bunt to throw the hitter out at first, Turner turned a ground ball to short into an out and Tate Young scooped up a grounder to first to tap the bag and hold Surface Creek scoreless.
Unfortunately, the Blue Jackets struggled to find hits while the Surface Creek bats turned hot in the top of the third inning.
Seve struck out the first hitter but six of the next seven Surface Creek batters connected to score three more runs and build a 5-1 lead.
Young and Seve both tapped base hits in the bottom of the third inning but Crested Butte failed to generate any runs and Surface Creek tacked on four more runs to take a 9-1 lead into the fifth inning.
Surface Creek then busted out the big bats in the top of the fifth inning, driving in four more runs on a two-run inside the park home run, a triple and a single, finishing off the Blue Jackets 13-1.
Crested Butte looked to bring their A-game in the second half of the doubleheader but the rains came, forcing the game to be cancelled.
The Blue Jackets will remain at home to host Olathe on Thursday, June 18 at Tommy V Field at 6 p.m. and then a double-header against Montrose on Saturday, June 20 also at Tommy V Field starting at 10 a.m.
