The Cozad Seniors built up an early lead but weren’t able to hold ship as the Indians offense heated up to the tune of a 12-8 decision in favor of the host Broken Bow Nine on Thursday evening.

Scoring first was the Indians, as Caleb Dodge helped out his own cause with a walk and then he scored on Jake McCormick’s RBI-single to give the host a 1-0 lead at the end of the first inning.

The score remained 1-0 until the Reds offense caught fire with a two-out rally in the bottom of the second inning. Jason Finnegan singled and then Brendan Molden was walked. Then Dillon Budd singled to score Finnegan. On the ensuing at-bat, Tysen Werner connected on a two-RBI double to clear the bases. Werner advanced to third base on Tylar Lauby’s single. Once again a big-hit cleared the bases with two more runs scored on Zach Caldwell’s two-RBI single that rocketed into left field. Broken Bow was finally able to record the third out of the inning with a force play at second base on Simon Rangel’s fielders choice, but the score and momentum had clearly swung in the direction of Cozad 6-1 at the end of the second inning.

The Reds went back to work in the third inning with two more runs, as Brendan Molden and Dillon Budd circled the bases to score to make the score 8-1.

In the bottom of the third inning, Broken Bow dented the lead with Tommy McCormick earning a walk and then scoring on Hunter Campbell’s RBI-single. Trading places, McCormick would then score on Caleb Dodges’ RBI-single of his own, but that is all they could muster as Cozad retired the next three batters to extinguish the potential rally and hold onto an 8-3 lead.

Chipping away at the Reds lead, Broken Bow was able to score runs in the fourth and fifth innings with Josey Evans and Jake McCormick circling the sacks, respectively.

Cozad’s lead had dwindled down to 8-5 by the start of the sixth inning. During the action of the stretch stanza, the Broken Bow offense caught fire and were able to plate seven runs with RBI-singles off the bats of Seth Quackenbush and Josey Evans leading the scoring surge that gained the Indians a 12-8 lead with just one inning remaining.

During the top of the seventh inning, Cozad was not able to regain the hot hitting stroke that garnered the Reds the big lead. The Cozad Nine took to the dish with gumption, but did not have enough outs remaining as Broken Bow recorded three outs and iced the homefield 12-8 victory for the Indians over Cozad. Outfielder Adam McGinnis finished the contest 2-4 at the plate with a pair of singles and a run scored to lead Cozad. Reds leadoff batter Dillon Budd scored twice to lead all scorers in the game.

Score By Inning
Cozad    0620    000-    8
Broken Bow    1021    170-    12