BRADFORD, Vt. — Oxbow High’s baseball scoreboard remained aglow half an hour after Tuesday’s game with U-32. Not that the Olympians needed a lengthy reminder of the loss or its 22-6 denouement.

Oxbow is 1-6 and has been outscored 91-36 this season. Take away its lone victory, a rout against a winless co-op team from Northfield-Williamstown, and it’s an even uglier picture.

“A lot of the games start off close and then we make errors,” said sophomore Griffin Pike, a three-sport athlete. “Today, they hit some home runs, so we were down a bit and that kicked us a little more.”

Oxbow has played strong opponents in Missisquoi, Thetford and Blue Mountain. U-32 is only 3-3, but the Raiders took advantage of at least 10 unearned runs.

“We aren’t as confident as we were last year,” Pike said. “When we go up to bat, a lot of us are not ready to hit. In the field, a lot of kids have their head down. They’re not ready to play baseball.”

Tuesday’s game offered a microcosm of a struggling team.

A pop foul landed directly behind the right-hand batter’s box, for what could have been the second out in the top of the first inning. An infield error then scored the afternoon’s first run and the Raider who’d been at bat purposely strolled off first base, drawing a throw from a flummoxed Olympian and allowing another runner to score from third.

“What’s done is done!” shouted 25th-year head coach Shawn French, but his players already had a hangdog look to them.

U-32’s second at-bat was disastrous for the hosts, who trailed, 12-2, by the time it ended.

A wild pitch. A dropped third strike on which the catcher attempted to throw out a foe running to third base instead of taking the sure out at first. A single into the left-field corner and the return throw that landed near the pitcher’s mound, allowing runners to take an extra base.

The first of three Raiders home runs in the game.

Through it all, French displayed little pique. Olympians trudging back to the purple-painted dugout after half an inning didn’t face a dressing down in front of it and weren’t angrily buttonholed in one of its dim corners. There’s no point to such an approach, he said.

“I have a young team that’s going to make a lot of mistakes,” said French, who’s also in his 29th year as an Oxbow physical education teacher. “You have one error and then, before the inning’s over, you’ve given up six runs. It’s hard to recover when you’re not the most talented team that’s ever been out there.”

Said Pike: “I see the frustration in him, and sometimes I wish he’d show a little more fire. We make an error, and I see his face go from a smile to a little bit of a frown. Today was the most angry I’ve seen him when he yelled at our catcher.”

Oxbow has only one senior. The Olympians are 7-48 during four seasons since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 campaign before it began. The two seasons prior to the break, however, the team was 20-13 and twice reached the VPA Division III quarterfinals.

Back in the day, California transplant and future pro Bobby Valliant pitched the Olympians to the 1980 state title, which was sandwiched by a pair of semifinal appearances and another state crown in 1982. Oxbow has won four more titles since, the last in 2004, and reached the final most recently in 2010.

French said a main factor in the downward trend is the school’s shrinking size. US News & World Report lists Oxbow’s enrollment as 246 in grades 9-12 and describes 35% of those students as “economically disadvantaged.”

That translates into many district teens needing or wanting to work after school.

It perhaps also explains long, scuffling stretches for the football and boys basketball programs.

A robust track and field roster also chips away at French’s potential player pool. The 1989 Oxbow graduate and three assistants, two of whom are former Olympians, do the best with what they have.

The rise of neighboring baseball programs at Thetford and Blue Mountain draw away baseball players who could attend Oxbow, leaving the Olympians a bit thin.

“If we had four or five more kids, we could have (separate) JV and varsity teams,” said French, who has 16 players in his program. “That way, we’re not throwing young kids into high-pressure varsity games, but that’s not the reality of it.”

Why does he keep doing it? A pair of angry men waiting for him after Tuesday’s game gave a glimpse of the many stresses that high school coaches face.

The answer is simple but true.

“I enjoy the game of baseball, although games like today make it harder,” French said.

“I enjoy teaching baseball, and this is what I want to do.”

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.