Ottawa Legion A's game, confidence goes hand-in-hand

MOUND CITY — Playing with confidence goes a long way to being successful.

The Ottawa American Legion A baseball team is a good example. The squad’s confidence is high and the level of play is also high.

Ottawa has won five of its past six games after sweeping Mound City Thursday in Mound City. Ottawa won 5-2 and 4-2.

“The boys seemed more confident and didn’t back down from them. I told them we had to stay on a roll and build some momentum heading into next week,” Ottawa coach Brian Long said. “We did just that.

“We’ve cleaned up the fielding errors and many of the mental errors the past two nights.

“It’s a process that we keep striving for perfection but the game of baseball prevents that. Progress is and has been our goal since the beginning of the season. We just need to stay on track.

The Ottawa pitchers tossed complete games. In the opener, Adam Fritts tossed a three-hitter with four strikeouts. Dalton Laird had a two-hitter and four strikeouts in the nightcap.

“We keep finding out what the pieces of the puzzle fit where,” Long said. “The boys have been awesome at doing what we need them to do. We’re miles a head of where we were a week ago but we need to keep moving forward.”

In the first game, Kevin Farrell had two hits, an RBI and a sacrifice bunt. Laird tripled and scored twice.

Long said Gene Dydell turned in a solid game defensively at shortstop.

In the second game, Evan Moore had two hits with an RBI.

Long said the players’ attitude shows in the effort.

“You can see the effort when you see Sam Lee selling out to try and catch a fly ball and when you see Gene Dydell field each ground ball without a hiccup,” Long said.

Ottawa (10-7) plays Tuesday at home against the Emporia Blue squad. Ottawa lost to that squad earlier this season.

“They’ll see a much different and much improved team than when we saw them the second weekend in June,” Long said.