By Reagan Hoverman

The Bay City Bombers townball team has spent the 2022 season rebuilding its roster around an up-and-coming core of young players fresh out of high school.

With a young, inexperienced roster in a region such as the St. Croix Valley Baseball League, growing pains are bound to happen, as was on display on Friday, July 15, on the road against the River Falls Fighting Fish.

Bay City fell behind 2-0 through the first two innings of the game. In the top of the fourth inning, the Bombers got on the board with an RBI single to make it a 2-1 contest, still in favor of River Falls. Then in the top of the fifth, the Bombers tacked on two more runs when Carsten Meyer roped a two-RBI double down the third base line to take a 3-2 lead.

Both River Falls and Bay City slowed down offensively until the bottom of the eighth inning. The Fighting Fish tied the game when Josh Eidem laced an RBI double down the left field line. Bay City failed to produce any runs in the top of the ninth inning which gave the Fish a chance to walk it off in front of a packed home crowd at First National Bank Field of River Falls Field.

After two singles to start the inning and a wild pitch by the Bay City reliever, River Falls had the bases juiced with no outs. That’s when Mitchell Feyereisen blasted a walk-off RBI single to the outfield which scored Spencer Diedrich from third base to secure a 4-3 win.

While the River Falls celebration began and Feyereisen got the Gatorade bath down at home plate, Bay City’s players looked dejected because they let one slip away – and they all knew it. The Bombers entered the game with a 2-11 record in St. Croix Valley Baseball League games, leading only New Richmond’s 1-12 record.

Whereas River Falls entered the game as the best team in the league with a 10-1 record in the SCVBL. The game was a chance for Bay City’s youth to compete against one of the best teams in the state. The Bombers’ errors late in the game led to the walk-off defeat. Bay City coach Bump Ulvenes spoke candidly about the loss.

“I think we gave away the game there at the end,” Ulvenes said. “There were plays that should have been made and would have put us in a position to win the game instead of where it ended up.”

Bay City’s growing pains were evident in the crushing loss against River Falls. Multiple errors in the bottom of the ninth showed the youth and inexperience of the roster. High school-age players are still adjusting to the level of competition in the SCVBL and the greater sport of amateur baseball. Ulvenes spoke about the youth on the roster.

“We have eight kids that just graduated high school this year,” Ulvenes said. “A couple of them played for us in high school, but they still don’t have much experience playing amateur ball. We only have three guys over 30 on the team.”

Other than those three veteran players – of which Ulvenes is one – the entire roster is 25 years old or younger. Ulvenes and the other veterans on the team have recruited the younger players from local high schools including Ellsworth, Prescott and Red Wing, Minn.

According to Ulvenes, the young players have shown flashes of greatness through out the season, but have yet to settle into the competition of amateur baseball and begin limiting errors. Throughout the season, Bay City has given too many games away with defensive breakdowns.

“We’ve beat ourselves a lot this year,” Ulvenes said. “We’ve had way too many errors and it has just been a lack of defense behind the pitching – it’s our fault. We also haven’t supported our pitchers (offensively) when they need it. I couldn’t tell you how many times we’ve left the bases loaded.”

While there have been issues defensively and in clutch hitting situations, Bay City has been strong with starting pitching throughout the year. The Bombers’ ace pitcher Logan Vogel got the start against River Falls and held a dynamic Fighting Fish offense to three earned runs during his time on the mound. For context, River Falls regularly scores 8-12 runs a game this season.

“Our pitcher (Logan Vo- gel) had one of the best games that he has probably thrown all year,” Ulvenes said. “He pitched eight great innings and he’s our ace.”

The pitching has been a bright spot throughout a 2022 season that has been a rebuilding year for the Bay City Bombers. Although the record is in the bottom half of the SCVBL, Ulvenes stated there is still a lot of growth and development yet to happen this season which will help Bay City prepare for next year.

“Our goal is to play hard and grow as a team the rest of the way,” Ulvenes said. “We have a lot of things to improve on and we’ve already improved on a lot of things so far this year. We just need to keep taking those steps. We almost just beat a team that won a state title two years ago.”

The Bombers will continue to improve through this rebuilding season in hopes of making a charge up the standings during the 2023 campaign. Bay City suits up for its next competition on Friday, July 22, which is a road game against the Red Wing Aces. The first pitch for that game is slated for 7:30 p.m.

Bay City ace pitcher Logan Vogel delivers a pitch during his Friday, July 15, start on the road against the River Falls Fighting Fish. Vogel pitched eight excellent innings, holding River Falls to three total runs. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

Bay City Bombers batters Noah Matzek waits for a pitch from the Fighting Fish starter. The Bombers took a 3-2 lead into the ninth inning before getting walked-off by a Fighting Fish RBI single with the bases loaded. Photo by Reagan Hoverman