BEATRICE, Neb. — While Beatrice Bruins designated hitter Darby Brown pounded them with two home runs and three runs batted in last night, what did in the Chillicothe Mudcats yet again was one of the bedrock truisms of baseball – you can’t defense a base on balls.
   Having overcome unbeaten Beatrice’s leads of 2-0 and 4-3 to force extra innings, the Mudcats lost their MINK League meeting 5-4 when relief pitchers Michael Flanagin and Ryan Carbah combined for a hit batsman and three walks in the bottom of the 10th inning.
   “We just need to find ways to throw strikes,” Mudcats head coach “Jud” Kindle reiterated after his team saw a fourth potential victory in the past week slip away primarily because of bases on balls. “…We have the guys (in the bullpen). All of them have great movement on the baseball. … Once we start throwing strikes, everything will fall in place.”

   The Chillicothe skipper hopes that will begin happening tonight when the Mudcats host the struggling Clarinda A’s in a 7:05 p.m. game at “June” Shaffer Memorial Park. Andrew Dunn is the scheduled Mudcats starter.
   The A’s dropped league games Monday and Tuesday to slip to 3-8 in the loop and 4-10 overall heading into a home game last night against the Mac-N-Seitz Athletics last night.
   “We’re into a really tough week with some good opponents,” the Mudcats field boss acknowledged, looking ahead to a visit Friday night to Topeka and then a three-game home set with Beatrice Saturday (5:05 p.m. doubleheader) and Sunday (1:05 p.m.). We’ll see what we can do.”

   Facing a Bruins club last night which has yet to taste defeat in seven outings and 6-0 in league play, Chillicothe measured up until the late control meltdown.
   Beatrice’s Brown, who ripped 13 home runs as Texas A&M senior this spring, deposited a two-run shot in the third inning to start the scoring and a solo blast opening the sixth to forge a 3-3 deadlock.
   “Darby is a great player. He proved himself to be great at Texas A&M,” Kindle praised. “…He didn’t get drafted (earlier this month), which was very surprising to me with the swing and the physical attributes he brings to the game.
“He was really the difference maker in the game.”
   Both roundtrippers off Mudcats starting pitcher Blake Barber easily cleared the friendly center field fence about 350 feet from home plate at angularly-configured Christenson Field. “Both of them were shots. I don’t think the field had anything to do with his home runs,” Kindle said.

   Chillicothe (5-6, 2-3) had its own left-handed hitter that keyed its attack Wednesday.
Outfielder Luke Schlechte scored the first run on a Bruins error after reaching on a fielder’s choice, then singled in Dominic D’Anna from second with two outs in the fifth to give the Mudcats a 3-2 lead. After Beatrice scored single runs in the sixth and seventh to regain the advantage, Schlechte powered a shot over the fence in center leading off the top of the eighth to make it 4-4.
   “He’s definitely our ‘hot’ bat right now,” Kindle commented on the Jefferson College sophomore-to-be whose 2-for-3 night shoved his batting average up to .484 and whose two runs batted in moved him into a four-way tie for the team lead with eight. “      "He’s getting the job done. He’s confident at the plate. He’s shooting the ball to all fields.”

   After Corey Theriot threw 21/3 perfect innings of relief in the eighth, ninth, and 10th, Kindle and assistant/pitching coach Jason Nold chose to play the percentages and summoned recently-arrived lefthander Flanagin to pitch to Brown with one out and the bases empty in the 10th.
   The move immediately backfired when Flanagin’s first offering hit Brown. The Cowley College hurler followed with eight-straight pitches outside the strike zone to load the bases and end his stint.
   Ryan Carbah, whose control difficulties the night before against Mac-N-Seitz made him a loser, came in to try to get out of the huge jam. He had immediate success, fanning the first man he faced, but his four deliveries to Tyler Wright all were out of the zone, forcing home the game-winning run.
   “You can’t be too upset with our guys,” Kindle observed. “Every game we’ve lost, we’ve been right in the ballgame. …We just need to find a way to finish. Once we do that, I think we’ll be a little more successful.

   “It’s still a long season that’s just beginning.”

   Statistically, in addition to Schlechte’s fifth multi-hit game of the season, center fielder Matty Johnson continued his batting revival, going two for five. After batting just .067 in his first 30 official at-bats, the speedster has gone seven for his last 19 (.368).
   Chillicothe’s defense also remained reliable and, at times, very good, playing errorless ball for the fourth time in the last five contests.
   “Defensively, …we’re really strong,” said Kindle. … If our pitchers just allow our defense to do its job, it will do it.”