Sections of seating closed off at Vince Genna Stadium to allow fans to maintain safe social distancing while visiting the venue on Sunday, July 5, 2020.

It took a sharply hit ground ball to third baseman Benny Benitez to calm the nerves that nearly a year without baseball had built up.

“There were butterflies before the first game,” Benitez, of Bend High, said. “But after that first ground ball, I saw the ball OK and felt comfortable.”

Bend-based Boss Baseball’s 19U team hosted a four-game series over the holiday weekend, marking the first games for many area players since the high school spring season and the Bend Elks’ and Bucks’ summer seasons were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately for the home squad, it finished the series without a win.

The Seattle-based Mercedes Benz ballclub took it to Boss Baseball in a four-game sweep, as Boss was outscored by Benz 23-6 over the Fourth of July weekend.

For many of the Boss players, it was the first time that they had played in a live game in nearly a year, and there was some rust that had built up over that time. While Benz has been playing games since the first week of June and entered the series already having played five games, Boss Baseball had only one intersquad contest.

“It was really good for the guys to get out there and get up to game speed,” said Boss Baseball 19U coach James Cordes. “When you are out for five months, you can train all you want but there is no substitute for game speed. It was good to get out there and get these games under our belts.”

The rust was no more apparent than in the batter’s box. Boss batters struck out 11 times in the 12-3 loss in Game 1, seven times in the 5-2 loss in Game 2, eight times in the 1-0 Game 3 loss, and nine times in the 5-1 loss in the series finale.

Bend High’s Caden Mathisen finished the series with four hits and three runs and the team’s only extra-base hit of the series with a double in the second game. Zach Reynolds and Julian Mora were the only two Boss hitters with multiple hits during the series.

“Those guys came down from Seattle and they brought some good arms,” Cordes said. “That’s who you want to face, especially when you are getting up to speed.”

Typically, this time of year, the ballplayers have already played a spring season and have had a number of at bats throughout the course of the spring. That is not the case this summer.

“We hit at practice, but it is off a coach during BP,” said Ryan Gray, a catcher who played his high school ball at Hood River Valley. “Seeing a guy who is throwing upper 80s is going to be a lot different coming in from the coach.”

“We are good hitters, we just have to build our mindset at the plate,” Benitez added.

After giving up 12 runs in the first game, the Boss pitching improved over the next three games. Mathisen, Cole Parker and Alex Farnsworth combined to give up five runs in the second game, as did Kyle Knudtson, Zach Reynolds and David Lemke in the fourth game.

Jake Farnsworth had the best outing for Boss. In the third game, the La Pine grad tossed five innings of shutout ball, allowing only three hits while striking out eight in a 1-0 loss.

“(Jake) Farnsworth threw a gem,” Gray said. “He kept it scoreless for five innings and did great. David Lemke came in (Sunday) in the last game and threw an inning and got guys out, and that is all that you can ask for. Come in, throw hard and compete.”

In the field, Boss turned in a fairly clean series, committing only five errors over the four games.

“That’s all you can ask for is to respond,” Cordes said. “We got punched in the mouth pretty hard in that first game and it is easy to look down at that first game. But they responded and they competed for every out. Baseball and sports and life are adjusting, and we adjusted. That is what we are happy about.”

After the sweep, Cordes had a simple message for his players as they prepared for their doubleheader against Grants Pass on Wednesday:

“Trust the process, don’t let four games define you as a baseball player.”