MOORHEAD -- Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton coach Bill Ibach needs it repeated.
“We had how many hits?” Ibach said.
The Rebels had three hits Friday. The Rebels also won 5-3 over Detroit Lakes for their sixth straight win. They haven’t needed many hits of late.
“Our pitching has been the most consistent thing for our team this year,” Ibach said. “We’re throwing strikes at a 67 percent clip and we’re jumping ahead of hitters. If we play good defense and we have timely hitting, we win. If we don’t, we lose.”
The Rebels (10-6) had timely hitting Friday and they won. It was Gunnar Payne who came up to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the third. Payne cleared the bases with a double to put D-G-F up 5-3.
The Rebels answered with five runs in the bottom of the third after going down 3-0 to Detroit Lakes in the top half of the inning.
“It’s huge,” Payne said of answering the next inning. “It makes you go out there and throw strikes and be confident that your defense will pick you up.”
That’s exactly what Payne did, as he gave up just two infield singles over the next three innings and Tyler Madson closed the door with a 1-2-3 seventh for D-G-F. Payne and Madson retired 10 in a row to close the game.
“We’ve said the same thing when we lost five of six,” Ibach said. “Just keep pushing on. We’ve focused on having better at-bats, put the ball in play more and make things happen. That’s what won it for us today.”
Detroit Lakes (11-6) didn’t exactly help itself out. The first three D-G-F batters reached base in the bottom of the third on an error, a hit batter and a bunt that was fielded by the catcher with no one covering first base. Brett Meyers hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 3-1 and back-to-back walks brought in another run to cut the lead to 3-2. After a big strikeout with the bases loaded and one out, Payne made the mistakes hurt with his two-out double that plated three.
That’s the way it’s been going for a Lakers squad that has lost four straight.
“We’ve been beaten by big innings and part of it is we’ll have an error and we just don’t recover,” Detroit Lakes coach Steve Fuhs said. “The section is very even. Anybody can beat anybody. They got the big hit today and we didn’t. We just have to play harder and not make mistakes.”
DL 102 000 0–3 5 2
D-G-F 005 000 x–5 3 1
Cihak and Beck. Payne, Madson (7) and Oberg. W–Payne. L–Cihak. S-Madson.
