Jason Franchuk

DAILY HERALD

The season starts now for the Orem Owlz.

Actually, it started a little after 9 p.m. Sunday as the field was set up -- for practice.

Orem was swept in a doubleheader by Casper at Brent Brown Ballpark, 10-4 and 7-4 in a pair of seven-inning games as dictated by rules of minor league baseball.

Brevity did not help the team that had a two-game lead in the Pioneer League South when the day started at 4 p.m. And brevity sure didn't come afterward, as manager Tom Kotchman got down to business in a closed locker room that had him huddled with his team well past a chance to get his comments in time to hit this newspaper's deadline (9:45 p.m.); about 35 minutes after the second game ended.

Neither one was pretty for the Owlz (10-4), who are tied with Casper now.

The Ghosts won the first game in the first inning, scoring seven runs on their way to the route.

The nightcap was Orem's until a crucial error in the fourth, which was immediately followed by a Casper three-RBI double that sealed it.

Casper added a pair of runs in the seventh, thanks to a broken-bat double and a pitch in the dirt that led to a two-base scoring error.

It was the kind of moment that would certainly get a fiery guy like Kotchman fuming, as Alberto Rosario had a wild pitch glance off his body. He tried to get the runner going to third base, but wound up throwing way off line -- and into left field.

That produced the final score, as Orem looked puny in its last at-bat aside from a Gabe Jacobo double.

Jacobo smacked a three-run home run in the second game's first inning, as his parents watched in the stands.

Otherwise, what was there to see? Orem has lost three in a row.

The visitors took the lead for good in the second game last night on a three-run double in the fourth.

That came one batter after Darwin Perez committed his first error of the season in 12 games at shortstop. He took an awkward angle on a hard ground ball and wound up booting it to load the bases.

Kane Simmons emptied them with a blast to center field.

The Owlz last won Friday night. It was Kotchman's 1,500th victory at the minor-league level.

A manager doesn't reach that ultra-rare milestone without knowing how to push a few buttons. Many of Kotchman's former players regard him as a master, still remembering the tactics (some more crude than others) he used to get the most out of them.

It's this group's turn to see, hear and feel them. The season unofficially started late last night, after the season's 14th game. Kotchman walked his players through various fielding and baserunning drills.

It was 9:30 p.m. as the team on a rare losing streak in Utah County on Kotchman's watch took the field again.

This might have been the toughest opponent yet for the young, mostly new professional ballplayers: a manager who had every whim to extend the already long day far beyond 14 innings.

Kotchman wasn't in a hurry to go back to his hotel room -- just to get this season on track, and re-focus a lot of players after a hot start to the season has been tempered.

The Owlz could have also been getting in some practice because the field won't be available today. Utah Valley State College is celebrating its transition to university status. Casper agreed to play a doubleheader.

But with another home game looming Tuesday against Idaho Falls, a quiet night in Orem seemed like as nice a place as any for Kotchman to get his young, impressionable team's attention.