While most county high school teams were idle during spring break, Osceola used the week to bring some tough competition to its home campus. At the end of the week, Kowboys earned a win, a loss and a no contest in seeing their record go to 6-3 on the season.
It was a no contest in more than one sense of the word Wednesday, as Osceola’s game with national power Owasso, Oklahoma was rained out in the top of the fourth inning with the visitors holding a 16-0 lead. Under FHSAA rules a game must go four-and-a-half innings in order to be considered official or four full innings if the visiting team is ahead to take advantage of the mercy rule. Since neither condition existed the game is officially cancelled by weather.
Still, Kowboys coach Scott Birchler said the game was worth playing. “They are obviously a great program with great players. It the type of team you like to play in the regular season as it helps keep your team grounded,” he said. “Overall, for the few innings we got in, I really don’t think we played that poorly on defense or at the plate, they just had one of those days where their hitters were locked in and it sort of snowballed on us.”
The Rams (7-0) pounded out 15 hits in three-plus innings, including four home runs. Senior Jackson Smith had two home runs and four RBI; while reserves Jake Morrow and Cole Deason cracked home runs in the fourth inning before lightning and rain halted the game.
In the meantime, Jackson Farrell was keeping the Osceola bats in check – allowing just a pair of singles by Nick Palmi and Luis Nunez in three innings of work.
Owasso is ranked 13th in the nation by MaxPreps and 36th in the nation by Perfect Game.
Osceola faired considerably better a day before – splitting a twin bill with Palm Harbor University. The Kowboys won the first game, 2-1, before dropping the nightcap, 3-2, in a 12-inning affair.
“Two great baseball games against a really good team,” Birchler said. “Both games were extremely well-played and well-pitched on each side. We picked up the big hit we needed in the win and they got it in the game we lost. It’s only March but it certainly had the feeling of May playoff baseball.”
In the 2-1 victory, Nick Palmi scored the winning run in the third inning. With the scored knotted, Palmi hit a double and would score on Danny Ramirez’s RBI single. Chris Palmi picked up the win, allowing one run and three hits in five innings of work.
In the loss, the Kowboys used four pitchers who combined to allow nine hits but had 11 strikeouts. Sophomore Isaias Ducasse was a hard luck loser allowing two hits and a run in the decisive 12th inning. Osceola had their chances, putting runners in scoring position numerous times with five hits, five walks and four stolen bases but failed to pick up a timely hit when needed.
Nick Palmi had two hits for Osceola.
“Consistency is an issues right now it involves everything including the weather,” Birchler said after the Owasso game. “When we hit and pitch well at the same time, I think we are a pretty good team. But we haven’t developed that consistency yet to do that. A lot of it has had to do the weather cancelling games and practices which has hurt us from getting into any type of rhythm. But we can’t use that as an excuse. We haven’t performed as well as we should be on a consistent basis yet.”
Osceola returns to action next week with a Tuesday home game against Lake Minneola (6-2) and a Friday road game against Davenport Ridge (2-4).
