The Lincoln baseball team was great at getting two-out hits in Saturday's home opener.
The problem was, those were about the only kind of hits the Blue Tigers got, drastically limiting their offensive output.
Seven of the team's eight hits came with two outs - three of them coming in a row in a two-run eighth inning that accounted for all of the Blue Tigers' runs - and Lincoln dropped a 4-2 decision to the Central Oklahoma Bronchos at Lincoln Field.
"We kept getting two-out hits, so then we're kind of limited in what we can do," Lincoln coach Mike DeMilia said. "We needed to obviously get going earlier on in innings."
The Blue Tigers' only hit that didn't come with two outs was a one-out double by Nick Lovell in the first inning, but he was eventually stranded at third.
That started a string of missed chances for the Blue Tigers, as they left runners on base the first five innings. Two-out singles by Daniel Castillo and Mason Price in the second went for naught, as did a two-out single by Kaleb Davis in the third and a two-out hit by Lovell in the fifth.
"The big issue we have is we don't hit for a lot of power, so we have to put hits together," DeMilia said.
That finally happened for the Blue Tigers in the aforementioned eighth. Davis rapped - what else? - a two-out single and then scored when Dylan Koechner burned the Central Oklahoma center fielder for a triple. Trevor Schnieders followed with a single to score Koechner.
That got Lincoln to within 3-2 - Central Oklahoma had scored single runs in the second, sixth and seventh to go up 3-0 - and the Bronchos got an insurance run in the top of the ninth. The Blue Tigers then went down in order in the bottom of the ninth to end it.
"(The Bronchos) have been struggling a little bit, but they're way talented," DeMilia said. "They've got a lot of really good players. Talent-wise, they're a little better than us. But I thought if we played the right way, and we did, we'd give ourselves a chance."
Lincoln dropped to 0-10 overall and 0-5 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, while Central Oklahoma improved to 6-10 and 2-6.
"I think we're getting better," DeMilia said. "We're competing and that's a big thing. We could very easily pack it in and call it a season, but we haven't."
Schnieders was the tough-luck loser, as he scattered eight hits in a complete game effort. Three of the runs were earned as he walked six and struck out one.
DeMilia said it was a nice bounceback effort for Schnieders after a tough outing in his last start.
"It was big for him to come in and be as effective as he was," DeMilia said. "He walked a couple too many guys, but the thing was he was really staying on the edges. They're the kind of hitters who are aggressive, so if you can stay on the corners, you're going to get outs. He did a great job of that and he pitched out of some jams."
DeMilia added Schnieders did a good job of making in-game adjustments.
"Mechanically, he's been working on a couple things," DeMilia said. "Every once in a while he reverts back to some of the things he was doing before. But when he gets back on-line, he does really well."
Schnieders also made a pair of nice defensive plays - stabbing a hard-hit grounder in the fourth inning and making a nice play to keep a bunter from reaching on a sacrifice in the sixth.
Then in the eighth, he had a nice sequence when he picked off a runner at first for the second out and struck out the next batter to keep the Blue Tigers in a close game.
"That was huge, for sure," DeMilia said. "It gave us a chance."
The teams will play a pair of seven-inning games starting at 1 p.m. today before wrapping up the four-game set with one nine-inning game at 1 p.m. Monday.