The North Platte 80s held the Austin Weirdos scoreless for the last seven innings on Saturday in their 9-4 win at Bill Wood Field.

The victory snapped a seven game losing streak. The 80s (3-18) lost the previous game in the series against the Weirdos 4-3 on Thursday.

“We had some really close games from Garden City and we’re taking the positives from those losses,” 80s manager Todd Everleth said. “I told the guys we had to have a fire in our belly and tonight they showed that.”

The game started with Austin leadoff hitter Jalil Marinez hitting the first pitch from 80s pitcher Seth Christiansen out of the park. The Weirdos, who sported tie-dye jerseys, scored two more runs in the first inning when Cole Harness doubled off the wall in left field.

North Platte fought back in the bottom of the first. Coby Tweten sacrificed himself with a ground ball to the shortstop to score the first run. The 80s scored the next three runs on base hits to right by Jerry Liang, Trevor Nelson and Christiansen to go up 4-3.

The Weirdos tied the game again in the top of the second when Marcos Cabrera reached base on an error by Nelson at third base. But North Platte went back on top again in the bottom of the second on two-out RBI singles by Tjay Mullins and Tweten.

That was all the 80s pitchers needed. Christiansen threw scoreless innings in the third, fourth and fifth before turning it over to the bullpen. The trio of Lake Fisher, Ryan Schroeder and Cory Steward didn’t give Austin a chance to come back.

On the other end, North Platte scored a run in the fifth and two in the seventh.

“Having a home run on the first pitch, that happens in baseball and there’s nothing you can do about that,” Everleth said. “We beared down and did what we know how to do best, which is play good defense and get our bats working. Tonight, we had all that and a great pitching lineup. Our relievers came in and did a good job. That’s all I ask for is for them to keep us in the game and they did that.”

Next, the 80s will play a three-game series at the Garden City Wind starting on Tuesday. After that, they will host Garden City on Friday and Saturday.

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