AUDUBON

After winning the season opener, the Audubon baseball team is still searching for win No. 2, following four straight losses.

Two of the losses were competitive: 9-4 to AHSTW and a wild 16-14 loss in 10 innings to Tri-Center, followed by Monday’s 12-2 loss to Riverside and a 24-3 loss to Martensdale-St. Marys on Wednesday.

In the Tri-Center game on Friday, May 30 at Audubon, the Trojans went up 12-4 after 3-1/2 innings before the Wheelers came storming back with nine runs in the bottom half of the fourth to go ahead 13-12. The Trojans got a run in the top of the fifth, and it remained deadlocked until the eighth, when each team scored a run.

The Trojans scored two in the top of the 10th, with a walk and error leading to the go-ahead run, and a sacrifice bunt adding an insurance run. The Wheelers went 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the inning.

The Wheelers’ fourth saw Carson Wessel get hit by a pitch to start the scoring, followed by Colton Hansen’s sacrifice fly, RBI singles by Gabe Jensen and Adam Obrecht and then four straight walks to make it 12-11. Brody Schultes was hit by a pitch to bring in the tying run, and eventually a catcher’s intererence call gave the Wheelers a 14-13 lead. That set up the finish.

The Wheelers got two hits from Schultes in Monday’s loss to Riverside. Against Martensdale-St. Marys, the Wheelers got the first base runner in the bottom of the first, but it was the Blue Devils who scored 10 in the top of the second and cruised. The Wheelers were held to three hits in the loss to the Blue Devils, with Hansen having the lone RBI.

The Wheelers (1-6) played Treynor on Thursday, and were scehduled to play Logan-Magnolia today (Friday), at Missouri Valley on Monday and at home vs. West Central Valley on Wednesday, June 11.

EXIRA-EHK

Exira-EHK’s baseball team opened the season with four straight losses, with only one of those losses one-sided.

That was the game against state-ranked Coon Rapids-Bayard, and the Crusaders showed their No. 5 ranking by the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association was with good reason: A 19-1 victory over the Spartans.

The Crusaders jumped out to a 16-0 led in the game last Thursday, May 29, and needed just four innings to end the game early. The Spartans’ lone run came in the bottom of the fourth, as Alex Rasmussen scored the lone RBI off an Alex Hansen RBI single.

The Spartans got just two hits on the night, as the Crusaders were able to draw 13 walks off five Spartan pitchers.

The games against Earlham (7-0), ACGC (4-0) and Boyer Valley (8-2) were still losses, but much more competitive.

Statistics from the Boyer Valley game, played Wednesday night, were not posted as of Thursday morning, but information from the first three games was.

Per GoBound Iowa, for the first three games the Spartans have collected 10 hits, with Hansen having three and Blake Nelson two. Blake Nelson and Alex Nelson have the lone extra-base hits, each with a double. The Spartans have reached base by means other than base hits 10 times – five walks, three on hit batters and two via error. Rasmussen has stolen two bases.

In relief roles, Rasmussen has an ERA of 3.23 with four strikeouts, while Thomas Petersen has three strikeouts and a 7.00 ERA.