Knights c-c-c-rash

Your best friend on Wednesday, March 27 at Legion Field was your car heater.

It was c-c-c-c-old.

Those fans parked in their cars, and those few who braved it out in the stands, weren’t treated to much of a game.

“I hope that’s not us,” Bremerton coach Mike McKnight said after watching his Knights fall, 15-6, against North Kitsap in a Narrows League Bridge Division.

The Knights (0-2 league, 1-4 overall) were hurt by ineligibilities, sickness, errors and a lack of punch at the plate.

McKnight suited up just 10 players and he was down to nine after sending an ailing Cory Beahm home in the middle of the second inning. Senior Joe Bollinger was behind the plate for the first time in a high school game and so was his replacement, Ron Gingrey.

The veteran coach wasn’t looking for excuses, though.

"The guys still have got to pick it up and play,” McKnight said. “Every team goes through things like that.”

North, in fact, was minus two starters because of illness, but the Vikings (1-2 league, 2-4 overall) didn’t seem to mind the weather. North, with leadoff hitter Brian Leibold going 4-for-5, managed 15 hits in the chilly conditions.

Bremerton’s Josh Walesby was the bright offensive spot for the Knights, going 2-for-4 with a pair of 2-run singles. Gingrey drove in the Knights other run with a bloop single.

Bremerton had more errors (6) than hits (4).

Alex Mansfield walked three times and was the only Bremerton hitter to make solid contact against North reliever Chris Carlsen, who struck out six and retired nine of 10 batters, including the last eight after entering the game in the fifth.

“We’re going to get better,” said McKnight, whose team traveled to Seattle on Friday, March 29 to face Ingraham, “but so far, we just haven’t done it. We’ve got to figure out a way to put the ball in play.

“I thought this was a winnable game. I just feel our guys lost their focus and didn’t play the way we can play. You could see it in their body language. They looked whupped.”

The loss came after Bremerton was beaten 12-2 by Capital on Thursday, March 21 and 7-0 by South Kitsap on Friday, March 22.

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