The good baseball season start has suddenly started going bad for the Todd Beamer Titans after a 4-0 South Puget Sound League South record to start. Now these boys of spring have lost two league games in a row, including the latest, a 4-2 loss to visitor Puyallup Tuesday.

"Tough one," said head coach Jerry Peterson, afterward. "And we lost the game before this one, too, to Graham-Kapowsin, 8-1."

The Titans now are 4-2 in the SPSL South and Puyallup is in first all by themselves at 5-0-1.

This game was definitely the Titans' mistakes causing their loss. They out-hit Puyallup, 9-8. And left nine runners in scoring position to Puyallup's half that many.

The Titans took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Dustin Martin single and a Matt Hart RBI double. They took that 1-0 lead into the bottom of the third inning and almost made it more by putting two runners on the basepaths. First, Nate Ware did a nice bit of hitting, stretching the bat out and poking the ball into shallow center field. Then Brian Corliss hit the ball deep to the shortstop, who could not make a play to second because of a "hit and run." So, short looked to scoop up the ball and throw to first for Puyallup but bobbled the ball looking to second to try and nail Ware.

And Corliss was safe at first on the called error, late throw to first by short. But it was a good hit hit to the hole at short by Corliss and the scorekeeper could have called that one a 'hit.' Tough call. So, they, the Titans, had two runners on, and zero outs.

The next batter flew out to center field, a nice can of corn and the batter after that hit into an inning-ending double play, a line drive to second base.

Someone from the crowd said not so quietly after the third threat expired all for naught: "See what happens when you don't get the bunt down." That comment referred to the center field first out of the third inning by the Titans. That batter could not get the bat on the ball for a bunt before Peterson had to change the sign to "hit away," which was the aforementioned fly ball out to center.

Again, the Titans mounted more offense in the bottom of the fourth, not to leave out that starting pitcher Matt Hart had again mowed down the Puyallup batters 1-2-3. He threw only six pitches in the top of the fourth and was only at a 46 pitch count after four innings of flawless work.

Titans catcher Cole Bixenman, who threw out three Puyallup runners trying to steal in this game, was hit by the first pitch that started the bottom of fourth. But Bixenman was caught in a pickle leading off the bag right after that. That was too bad Bixenman could not get to second because the next batter, Henry Apigo, singled up the middle. But out, out, out, came next in triplicate to end the Titans fourth. And the second out was a hard shot to shortstop making the fielding play and throw to first. And, the third out of the bottom of the fourth a grounder was fielded by the Puyallup pitcher, who straighted up and threw to first.

The more the game changed time-wise, the more it stayed the same as the Titans continued to do well on defense, including Bixenman's great dive forward to catch a bunt pop-up. But Beamer was not being able to mount offensive scoring from their plentiful offense. In the bottom of the fifth, the Titans' first two batters struck out and bunted out. But then Corliss started a two-out rally, singling up the middle. Martin singled, and Hart walked to load the bases. Actually, Hart was intentionally walked. That put the Titans in a good position -- Bixenman can hit. So, walking Hart to get to Bixenman is a risky strategy indeed. But it paid off for the Puyallup coach as Bixenman swung at the first pitch. He hit it hard but right to the third baseman, who fielded the ball deep and was not able to get Martin heading to third so he went to plan B, making a long throw over to first base in time.

"I was pumped. I was ready to hit," said Bixenman.

"We just couldn't get a breakout hit," said Peterson. "We had guys on base, but we couldn't get a hit."

So, the sixth came for Puyallup and it was a good sixth for them and not for the Titans. Hart, whose pitch count totaled 56 though five, ballooned to 77 pitches. He threw 21 pitches, of which the first batter hit a leadoff double to the center field gap. The next batter sacrifice-bunted the leadoff to third and then a RBI-single tied things up, 1-1. Another hit up the middle, another single pulled into right field put runners at second and third and then the runner on first stole second and ... the runner on third took off. Bixenman's throw to second was in time to put runners in a pickle but they had to attend to business. If they did not get the runner out in a pickle before that runner reached home, the run would count. So, the second baseman zipped the ball back to Bixenman on home plate. The third base runner barreled into him and he dropped the ball, 2-1, Puyallup.

"The ball just popped out of my glove," said Bixenman. "It should have been an out. We should have been out of the inning."

So, now down, 2-1, the Titans needed to do something in response to the Puyallup rally. And they did, starting the sixth bottom half with an Apigo leadoff stand up double to the center field gap. Then Apigo went home on an RBI double down the third base line by Joe Ronnfeldt that made it 2-2.

Ware then singled to left field to put runners at first base and second. But the next batters grounded out and the top of the seventh was Puyallup's inning to take this one. They started off with a gift, a leadoff walk from Hart. Then a sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second. Then the Puyallup No.7 hitter was up and he was better than his number, bashing the ball to the fence without a hop in right-center. That scored one, 3-2 Puyallup. Another scored right after that on an RBI single. Hart was pulled, but the damage was done.