Buffalo scores six late, stuns Vikes after being no-hit through four

No lead is ever safe in baseball. There isn’t a time limit, and that can sometimes become a nightmare for a team that is leading. It was North Branch’s nightmare on Monday, April 22 when they jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and looked to be cruising until the fifth inning came along.

The first inning brought about a surge of power from picher Jacob Kari. Not only did he mow down the Bison hitters in the top of the first, he went yard in the bottom of the first, hitting a three run dinger for his first of the year. The longbomb drove in Ethan Fairbanks, who had drew a walk and Nick Pilz, who had hit one of his four singles on the night to get on base. Kari made his own lead stand for four solid innings of work. He had a no-hitter going through the first four frames but that fifth inning ended up being North Branch’s undoing. Kari began to lose some velocity on his pitches and Buffalo started to find the green.

Buffalo’s Thomas Eckstein broked up the no-no bid in the top of the fifth with a single. Ramon Vega backed that up with another base knock. Kari then battled a bit of wildness, walking the next better. Wyatt Brings hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Buffalo’s first run of the game. The runner at second also advanced to third, which ended up being a big play because a fielders choice on the next play scored the runner. An error on defense then allowed another baserunner to score, and all of a sudden, what was looking like a cruise control, potential no-hit bid victory turned into a 4-3 deficit for North Branch. They got that run back in the bottom of the fifth when Charlie Linder drove in Pilz with a single. Linder then came in to pitch in the top of the sixth as Kari didn’t have much left in the tank.

Unfortunately for Linder, after walking a Buffalo hitter, Jay Bollum went deep for a two-run homer that put Buffalo up 6-4 late in the game. Linder recovered to punch out three Bison hitters the rest of the way and didn’t give up any other hits, but the damage was done. North Branch’s bats went quietly the rest of the game and they lost their first Mississippi 8 Conference game, 6-4. Linder was saddled with the loss, but was 2-for-4 on the night with one RBI. Pilz went 4-for-4 with two runs while Kari went 2-for-4 with the homerun and three RBIs. Rob Osowski, Trey O’Day and Michael Hensch all picked up hits for North Branch in the defeat.