|
|
As the dog days of summer often wreak havoc on natural flora and fauna, so too they often aid in withering the passion and commitment of amateur baseball players.
Such was the case Wednesday evening in Luverne, where a skeleton crew of Pipestone A’s players were simply no match for the hosting Redbirds. Scoring early and often, and using the long ball to their advantage, the Redbirds dispatched the A’s in seven frames, 16-0, to move to within two games of the Milroy Irish in the Gopher League standings.
Despite singles of the bats of Austin Evans and Danny Moffitt to open the tilt, the A’s came up empty against Luverne starter Jake Haugen.
The A’s (5-10 overall), who had the minimum nine bodies show up for the tilt at Redbird Field in Luverne, saw four hurlers take the hill over seven frames. Avery Ploeger started for the visitors and didn’t make it out of the second inning. The right-hander allowed six earned runs on five hits, striking out two and walking two. And giving up two doubles and two home runs with no outs in the second frame prompted the A’s to replace Ploeger with Austin Evans. Evans managed to get the A’s back to the plate in the top of the third via a pair of deep flyouts and a strikeout, but he too would struggle against the fence-swinging Redbirds before his three-inning tenure was up.
Trailing 8-0 entering the third, the A’s saw Derek Lundgren plate himself and Gage Nath (triple) with a bomb over the centerfield wall. Phil Paquette and Skyler Wenninger followed with back-to-back singles, and ensuing base hits by Cade Wenninger and Ethan Beyer (double), helped the hosts plate three more runs and carry a 13-0 lead into the fourth inning.
Evans (5ER, 7H, 2K) gave up nothing in the bottom of the inning and yielded to Mitchel Carson in the top of the fifth. Despite giving up a lead-off single to Skyler Wenninger, Carson was sharp in his one inning of work – setting down Newt Johnson, Haugen and Cade Wenninger in order to get out of the frame unscathed.
Jordan Karels singled to open the sixth against Luverne reliever Codie Zeutenhorst, but again nothing came of it for the visitors.
The A’s relieved Carson with Collin Moeller in the bottom of the sixth, where the ‘big man’ struggled to locate the zone.
Although wildly effective at times, striking out three, Moeller also walked four and allowed Luverne to plate three more runs – accounting for the final margin.
Evans finished with two hits for the A’s, while Carson, Moeller, Karels and Moffitt had one apiece.
The A’s had hoped to pick up a split during the week, but couldn’t muster the personnel to play the Worthington Cubs Sunday afternoon in Worthington – having to forfeit the contest.
The A’s will look to regroup or … simply group Wednesday night (June 30) against the Hadley Buttermakers. Game time is slated for 7:30 at A’s Field in Pipestone.
A’s 000 000 0 – 0 6 2
Redbirds 355 003 X – 16 13 1
