Early deficit too much for Beckman

You'd think he'd like to have a couple of those pitches back.Maybe he could have gone curve there instead of fastball. Maybe his location should have been inside and not outside to that guy.Eric DeSousa refused to second guess anything he did on the mound Saturday. The Dyersville Beckman pitcher knows that sometimes when things start snowballing, there's nothing you can do to prevent from being run over.“When it gets going ...,” DeSousa said, after an eight-run second inning allowed Fort Dodge St. Edmond to beat Beckman, 11-8, in the Class 2A state baseball tournament championship game at Principal Park. “Once they get one or two hits, it gives them more confidence. That's how they got that eight-run inning. I can't really look back on it and say I would have done anything differently. I probably couldn't have.”The truth is St. Edmond (35-3) did that snowball thing to a lot of opponents, though its hard to believe it did it to too many pitchers of DeSousa's caliber. The Gaels stormed to a 10-2 lead by sending 13 guys to the plate in the second, and the first nine reached by hit, walk or hit batsmen. There were bloopers (Joey Flattery's two-run single), bunts (two for hits) and blasts (Jon Flattery's three-run double to left-center).DeSousa went one-plus, giving up seven hits and eight runs - this from a guy who entered 13-1 with a 1.52 earned run average.“It wasn't really surprising because we've been doing that all season,” said Joey Flattery, one of six Flatterys on the St. Edmond team. “We've faced good pitchers all year and knocked them out.”Bless Jimmy Boeckenstedt, the third pitcher for Beckman, because his six innings of one-run relief allowed his team to climb back in it.

“Maybe we should have started with him?” cracked Beckman Coach Tom Jenk Jr.Beckman had the tying run at the plate in the sixth inning. Craig Kerper struck out swinging after narrowly missing a possible two-run double just foul down the left-field line two pitches earlier.“It took a lot of guts and pride,” Boeckenstedt said. “Being down (10-2), that just shows how strong we are and how we wanted to fight back so much.”“We hung in there,” said DeSousa, who had three hits and four RBIs. “I'm proud of everybody.”Beckman fell to 3-6 in championship games. It finished this season with a school-record 33 wins in 43 games.