PREPS Losing team learned from loss

A 47-0 baseball loss taught lessons to inexperienced players.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Often, the winners do not learn the greatest lessons.
Earlier this spring, in a matchup of high school baseball teams, Bexley beat Columbus' Linden McKinley 47-0 in five innings.
"The one regret I have is that I called the score in" for newspaper publication, Bexley coach Chad Mitchell said.
Linden coach Darrel Guess said the score simply reflects the truth about the game, and he thinks his team learned a lot from the game.
Mitchell's team is fed by middle school, freshman and junior varsity programs in the suburban Columbus district. Many of his players began participating in organized leagues when they were 6. Some of them spend their summers playing for traveling teams.
Guess recruits his players in the school hallways and the playgrounds of Linden. In many cases, his players have little or no baseball experience.
Competition
"Obviously, I feel bad about the score, but I don't feel bad about the competition we had, and our conduct on the field," Mitchell said. "It was one of those things where if you were at the game you'd have a completely different idea of it than if you just looked at the score. I had Linden parents come up and tell me how they enjoyed playing against us."
Guess said the Bexley team and coach should not be given any grief about the game.
"The score wasn't a lie; it was a score," he said. "There were four easy fly balls in the first inning. If we catch two of those, they don't score 23 runs, they might have had a seven-run first and we're talking about a completely different game."
As Linden dropped to 0-13, Guess continued his routine of teaching the game, going forth with humor and celebrating the small victories.
Girls basketball
Steve Hall, who played at Ohio State, said he had to adjust to coaching girls basketball at suburban Grandview Heights after always playing on winning teams. His has had a tough run of late, and Hall says he tries to stress learning from losses.
"We haven't been as blessed here, but we work hard, we dedicate ourselves to what we're doing," he said. "We take note of the effort the kids are putting in, and we appreciate it."
As Hall talks about it, though, one doesn't get the sense that his players have suffered through lean years.
"Some people of great ability go through blind in life, and coast on ability, and never reach their full potential," Hall said. "As a coach and a teacher, to see how hard we work, that's the best feeling.
"We talk about being the best you can be. If we're playing at the highest level we can attain, we're comfortable."
Feeder program
Guess remembers, vividly, playing on a district championship team when he was a student at Linden. Time has moved on. In the present era of open enrollment, Linden, a heavily populated area of Columbus, has become a feeder of athletes for other high schools.
"When you think back to high school and what you remember about it, a lot of times it's about playing a sport, or participating in some other extracurricular activity," he said. "You remember the fun of it, and that sticks with you.
"Some of these kids we get out here, this may be the last bit of fun they have before a lifetime of work. Some of the kids we get out here, we're taking them off the street. These are more little victories."
As the sun was setting last Wednesday, Linden was finishing its game with East. East had won once this season -- one more time than Linden.
Linden blew a four-run lead, then came back to win, 7-4.
How did it feel?
"Cold. And wet," Guess said after getting a bath from the team's drink bucket.
It is spring and hope remains, even in a so-called losing season.