As if the CAM baseball team didn’t have a full dance card already this past week, playing five games in five days, they hopped at the chance to play in the Brent Prange Classic this weekend.

Billed as Iowa’s Premier Baseball Classic, the event gave the team a chance to play competition from all around the state. In their opening game they met up with a team from central Iowa and in their final game, a team from northwest Iowa. Unfortunately, the results in both of the games were the same, as they team dropped both of their games on Saturday.

The Cougars travelled to Prairie City early on Saturday morning and their opponent was the host team from PCM of Monroe. The Mustangs used a big surge in the beginning of the game, then held off a late rally by CAM to win the game by the final score of 13-7.

After both teams failed to score in the opening inning of the game, PCM plated five runs in the bottom of the second inning. They had two players hit by a pitch, saw CAM commit three errors, and just collect one hit to give them the runs. In the fourth inning, when they scored four more runs, they nearly hit for the cycle, collecting a single, double, and home run in the frame to give them a 9-1 lead.

CAM would rally, and make a game of it, in the top of the fifth inning when they scored five runs. Tyler Ticknor started things off with a single and hustled to third on a Cohen McCann double. Carson McKee hit a liner to left field, which scored Ticknor and McCann and saw McKee advance to second on the throw-in. Zach Kauffman reached base on an error, and on the play, McKee got to second base. Kason Calhoun would later single in another run and Braxton Dennis would also score on a run when he grounded out in the inning.

McKee led the team in batting in the game with a pair of singles, while Calen Anstey and Cohen McCann each had a double. McKee’s two runs batted in paced the team, while Calhoun and Dennis each also knocked in a run. Collin Bower took the loss, pitching three innings. He gave up nine runs, which came off of eight hits. He struck out two and walked three. Kauffman finished up the game, pitching three innings. The four runs he gave up came off of three hits. He struck out one and walked two.

The team had their work cut out for them in the final game of the day, as they faced off against West Lyon. The Wildcats came into the game with an 18-1 record and were rated as the fourth-best team in Class 2A. That being said, it would take a big fifth inning by West Lyon to pull away from the Cougars, as they went on to claim the game by the score of 9-3.

Kason Calhoun singled in Zach Kauffman in the bottom of the first to tie the game at 1-1. In the bottom of the fourth, a Kayden Winther ground out would score Calhoun and make it 3-2 in West Lyon’s favor. The Cougars would get their final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth and this happened when Calhoun walked then was driven in by a Winther double.

Winther and Kauffman each had a pair of hits in the game, with one of Winther’s being a double. Winther also led the team in runs batted in, as he had a pair in the game. Carson McKee suffered the setback on the mound, as he pitched innings. He gave up three runs which came off five hits. Braxton Dennis pitched a couple of innings and Cole Platt pitched one.

BEAT SPARTANS

Before the team hit the buses Saturday morning, they had a conference game on Friday night to play. The opponent was Exira-EHK and the Cougars scored early and often in the contest. They scored five in the first and added five more in the third, as they won the game by the final score of 12-4.

The first inning was bountiful for CAM, as it turned out that the five runs they scored in the frame would be all they needed to win the game. Carson McKee started things off with a single, then stole second, and would score on a Zach Kauffman double. Collin Bower followed that with a double of his own, scoring Kauffman, then he would later core in the inning on a balk. Braxton Dennis scored a run with his ground out and Tyler Ticknor would net a run batted in with a sacrifice fly.

Collin Bower was a perfect 3-3 in the game with a double and three RBI. Kayden Winther and Zach Kauffman each had a pair of hits in the contest, while Kauffman and McKee each finished the game with two runs batted in to their credit. Erik Almelien picked up the win, pitching three innings. He struck out seven, walked seven and allowed just two runs. Kason Calhoun came on in to finish the game, pitching four innings. He too gave up two runs, struck out five and walked three.

No statistics were posted online for Exira-EHK, which fell to 0-12 on the season. Thomas Petersen started for the Spartans and took the loss, and his team scored two runs each in the second and fourth innings, with no scoring by either team after the fourth.

When the week was complete, the team had a record of 14-7 overall and a 7-4 conference mark. On Monday they will wrap up the conference portion of their season by playing host to the No. 1 team in the state in Coon Rapids-Bayard.