In a good week of baseball for the Mount Ayr Community Raiders, they got back on track toward a break-even season.
The Raiders defeated East Union, Murray and Central Decatur and fell to Pleasantville to move their record to 9-9 and go 5-4 in the Pride of Iowa conference.
The East Union win was 23-7, the Murray win 13-9 and the Central Decatur win 13-3 before the loss to Pleasantville Monday in a make-up game 11-1.
Mount Ayr Community 23, East Union 7
The Raiders smacked the ball all over the place scoring 23 times and winning via the 15-run mercy rule against East Union Tuesday, June 12 in Mount Ayr.
“It was good to get home as we struggled hitting the ball last night in Humeston,” stated coach Tanner Rinehart. “We hit the ball hard tonight from top to bottom.”
The Raiders scored one in the first and then exploded for eight more in the bottom of the second. It looked the Raiders had put the game away as they batted around in the bottom of the third, scoring 11 times taking a 20-1 lead.
The Raiders got sloppy in the field and Zach Welch hit a three-run homer to give the Eagles another chance cutting the margin to 20-7 after 3 1/2 innings. The Raiders quickly scored enough in their half of the fourth to win the game via the mercy rule.
Dustin Pritchett had a very productive night at the plate as he drove in seven runs with three hits and two sacrifices. Alex Sobotka also had three hits and scored four times and Zane Sickels hit a homer and a double and had three RBI’s. Austin Quick and Wes Schnoor collected two hits and Casey Paxson, Jake Still, Matt Poore and Erik Freed one apiece in Mount Ayr Community’s 16-hit parade.
Alex Sobotka got the win, pitching four innings and giving up no earned runs, struck out five and surrendered three hits.
R H E
East Union 00 1 6 7 3 6
Mount Ayr 18(11) 3 23 16 7
Sobotka (W)--4.0 and Sickels
(L) 2.1, Drabek-1.0 and Kelley
Mount Ayr Community 13, Murray 9
Mount Ayr Community evened the season series with Murray by defeating the Mustangs 13-9 on June 13 in Mount Ayr.
Murray had blanked the Raiders 15-0 earlier in the season on their home field.
“We got another good outing from Jake Still tonight,” commented coach Tanner Rinehart. “We got some key hits and benefitted from nine walks issued by their young pitcher.”
Still struck out 11, walked four, gave up six hits and two earned runs in the win.
The Mustangs started out well putting up a three-spot in the top of the first.
Mount Ayr Community countered by scoring twice that many in their half of the frame. The Raiders used walks, errors and hits from Wes Schnoor and Jake Still to take the lead.
A walk and a Casey Paxson double helped Mount Ayr Community increase the lead to 8-4 after two innings. The Mustangs committed two errors and hits by Alex Sobotka and Casey Paxson increased the home team’s advantage to 11-5 in the following inning.
The Raiders added another run in the fourth before some sloppy fielding and a Cody Scroggie double drew the Mustangs closer at 12-9. Mount Ayr Community got one more in the bottom of the fifth to give them a four run cushion.
The Mustangs loaded the bases with no one out in the top of the sixth, but Still then struck out the side to end the threat.
Still fanned the first two batters in the sixth and got Austin Halls to ground into a force out to end the game with the Raiders on top 13-9.
Casey Paxson and Wes Schnoor each had two hits in the Raiders seven-hit attack. Alex Sobotka singled, scored twice and had three stolen bases for the Raiders. Dustin Pritchett and Jake Still had the other two hits for Mount Ayr Community.
The win moves the Raiders record to 8-7 overall and 4-3 in the POI.
R H E
Murray 311 040 0 9 6 5
MAC 623 110 x 13 7 5
Still (W)--7.0 and Sickels
Winship (L)--6,0 and Rockhold
Mount Ayr Community 13, Central Decatur 3
Mount Ayr Community defeated the Central Decatur Cards 13-3 in five innings in Leon on Friday, June 15.
Dustin Pritchett got the mound victory for the Raiders on Friday. No game stats were available at press time.
The Raiders are now 9-7 for the year and 5-3 in the conference.
Pleasantville 11, Mount Ayr Community 1
Pleasantville scored eight runs in the top of the seventh to defeat the host Mount Ayr Community Raiders 11-1 in a POI conference makeup game on Monday, June 18.
The Trojans scored one in the first, fourth and sixth to take a 3-0 lead. Alex Sobotka was safe on an error and came around to score on a wild pitch for the Raiders only run in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 3-1.
Raider starter Dustin Pritchett seemed to tire in the top of the seventh as he walked several hitters and Mount Ayr Community also made some errors as the game went in favor of the visitors.
Alex Sobotka came on in relief to retire the side in the top of the final frame. The Trojans batted around and scored 8 times to increase the lead to 11-1.
Josh Luna retired the Raiders in the bottom of the seventh to get the victory. The Trojans got only six hits, but the Raider pitchers issued 17 free passes which gave them several scoring opportunities.
Luna gave Mount Ayr Community only four hits, fanned eight and walked no one to earn the win. No Raider stats were available at press time.
The Raiders are now 9-9 for the year and have a POI record of 5-4.
R H E
P’ville 100 101 8 11 6 4
MAC 000 001 0 1 4 5
Pritchett (L)--6.0, Sobotka--1.0 and Sickels
Luna (W)-7.0 and Prill
The Raiders were to travel to Corning Tuesday, June 19, and host Bedford tonight (Thursday), June 21, and Interstate 35 Friday, June 22. Tuesday, June 26 they play at Lenox and go to Lamoni Wednesday, June 27.