Raiders share first Pride of Iowa Championship
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The Raiders finished out their season as co-conference champions after wins over Lamoni and Martensdale-St. Marys.
The post-season then began with Wayne, before the Raiders defeated Lamoni Tuesday night to advance to the next round of post-season play.
Mt Ayr 9, Lamoni 1
Mount Ayr played another tough game against Lamoni Tuesday night, just 24 hours after defeating Wayne, to advance, yet again, in post-season play.
Exactly one week ago, Mount Ayr defeated Lamoni 10-2 after a seven run inning helped push the Raiders to victory.
Tuesday night was a similar story, however, the Raiders led the Demons 1-0 through three innings before the Demons tied everything at one.
The Raiders retook the lead after Lamoni pitcher Brayden Olson, began to lose control and walked three batters and striking out two.
With bases loaded, Jaixen Frost went to the plate and was hit by the pitch to send the second Mount Ayr run home.
Olsen got the strikeout to end the Raider bats in the fourth.
It was in the bottom of the sixth when things changed.
Briar Knapp was on the mound for Mount Ayr and after a flyout got out number one, Knapp walked two in a row, prompting a visit to the mound from coach Chris Elwood.
Directly after, Knapp struck out the Demon batter.
With two runners on and two outs, Lamoni hit a ball to deep center. Mount Ayr centerfielder, Erik Trujillo fielded the ball and shotgunned the ball to catcher Jaixen Frost at home plate where he got the tag and third out to keep the Raiders ahead and the Lamoni go-ahead run from scoring.
“In the moment I didn’t hear coach telling me no, I heard left fielder Adler Shay yelling home,” said Trujillo. “I threw it over and knew it was going to be there. I always try to do the best for my team and see what happens.”
Frost knew Trujillo could make the throw, seeing it done in practice earlier in the week, but didn’t know it would come into play in such a crucial moment.
“We’ve been practicing it in practice the last few days and he was putting it right on target,” said Frost. “He threw it perfect.”
Frost knew Martensdale, their next opponent on Saturday, was watching.
“It feels good going into the next game with the momentum,” said Frost. “I hope we scared them a little bit more this time.”
After the sixth, the Raiders still led 2-1, but in the top of the seventh, the Raiders were given four free runs on walks due to balks and batters hit by pitches, along with three runs driven in by strong bats.
Knapp ended the contest with eight strikeouts on the night after pitching a complete game.
The Raiders will head back to Martensdale’s home field on Saturday to face the Blue Devils once more at 7 p.m.
Mt Ayr 10, Wayne 0
The Raiders started post season play on Monday, July 12, hosting the Wayne Falcons.
Mount Ayr took the win after six innings.
Wayne mustered two hits against Mount Ayr pitcher Jace Grose.
The Raiders scored in every inning, except the third, putting up three in the first, one in the second and doing the same in the fourth and fifth, respectively before adding two runs in the sixth to end the game with the 10-run rule.
The Raiders recorded 10 hits on 11 runs, six RBI and a potential home run for Jaixen Frost bounced off the fence for a single and loaded bases.
The Raiders reached on error once, walked twice and struckout three times.
It was a clean game for the fielders as they committed no errors and had 18 putouts with six assists on 24 total chances.
Jace Grose pitched six innings, allowing two hits, walking four and striking out five batters.
“We needed to make sure we came in focused and didn’t overlook them,” said coach Elwood. “Jace threw well, gave up two hits and no runs and couldn’t be more pleased with that.”
The win advanced the Raiders to the next round where they faced Lamoni once more after Lamoni defeated Murray Monday night in Mount Ayr.
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
WF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
MA 3 1 0 3 1 2 0 10
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 3 2 2 0
Ehlen 3 1 2 1
Trujillo 3 2 1 1
Shay 4 1 1 0
Knight 3 2 2 1
Knapp 3 1 0 2
Grose 4 2 0 1
Swank 3 0 0 0
Cole 0 0 1 0
Reynolds 2 0 1 0
TOTALS 28 11 10 6
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Grose 6 2 0 0 5
TOTALS 6 2 0 0 5
Mt Ayr 10, Lamoni 2
The Demons were the first to score after loading the bases on two singles and a hit-by-pitch.
A fly out saw the Raiders get two outs on a double play, but a double saw a runner batted in and the inning ended on a flyout.
The Raiders answered back with seven runs of their own in the top of the fourth. Jaydon Knight, Dawson Swank, Jaixen Frost and Adler Shay all had runs-batted-in while going through the lineup once over and Lamoni changing pitchers from Jaiden Rivera to Kade Nowlin.
Lamoni would go on to score one more in the bottom of the sixth before the Raiders put up three in the top of the seventh against Demon pitcher Javin Stevenson.
The Raider bats scored on nine RBI and recorded 13 hits, 10 runs and struckout 10 times.
On the mound, Briar Knapp received the win after 4.1 innings and allowing two runs on four hits and strikingout five.
Dawson Swank closed the night out with 2.2 innings on the mound and striking out two.
The Demon bats recorded two runs off four hits and struck out seven times.
“Briar and Dawson pitched very well tonight,” said coach Chris Elwood. “The big difference was when it was bases loaded, no outs and Erik Trujillo made a great shoe string catch and doubled off. We played solid defense behind Briar and Dawson and our bats came alive. Very pleased with this win.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
MA 0 0 0 7 0 3 0 10
LD 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 5 3 2 1
Ehlen 3 1 1 1
Trujillo 4 1 1 0
Shay 4 3 2 4
Knight 3 1 1 2
Knapp 4 0 0 0
Grose 2 1 1 0
Swank 4 2 1 1
Cole 0 0 0 0
Reynolds 4 1 1 0
TOTALS 33 13 10 9
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Knapp 4.1 4 2 2 5
Swank 2.2 0 0 0 2
TOTALS 7 4 2 2 7
Mt Ayr 7, MSTM 3
The Raiders stunned the Pride of Iowa on Wednesday, July 7, after defeating the Martensdale-St. Marys Blue Devils 7-3 and taking a piece of the Pride of Iowa championship for the first time in school history.
The game started out with Jaydon Knight on the mound for the Raiders as he recorded one strikeout and the Raider defense snagging a popout and groundout to put the Blue Devils down in order.
The Raiders changed the lineup a little, putting Jaixen Frost as lead-off after being walked numerous times in previous games.
Martensdale-St. Marys pitched to Frost who slammed a solo homer on a 1-0 count to put the Raiders on the board.
The Blue Devils added three runs to take the lead in the second after two singles and a sacrifice fly, followed by a two-run home run by Matt Hughes.
It was in the bottom of the third with a RBI from Adler Shay and Briar Knapp.
It was the bottom of the fifth when the Raiders put four runs on the board with an RBI single by Knight and after that a two-run home run by Briar Knapp who was one-for-16 at the plate previously, and a solo home run right after Knapp, by Jace Grose.
Three straight strikeouts by Knight put Martensdale down in the sixth and in the seventh, the Raiders allowed one hit before collecting three straight outs.
The Raiders collected seven runs on 10 hits and struckout five times.
The Raider fielders committed two errors while recording 21 putouts with two assists on 25 total chances and Jaydon Knight pitched seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits and struck out 10 batters.
“This is the first time I’ve ever beat Martensdale in my six years as coach,” said coach Elwood. “With the way we played last night against Lamoni and tonight and the momentum we have going into the post season, it’s exciting.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
MSM 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 3
MA 1 0 2 0 4 0 0 7
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 3 3 2 1
Ehlen 4 0 0 0
Trujillo 3 1 2 0
Shay 4 1 0 1
Knight 4 1 0 1
Cole 0 0 1 0
Knapp 2 2 1 3
Grose 3 2 1 1
Swank 2 0 0 0
Reynolds 3 0 0 0
TOTALS 28 10 7 7
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Knight 7 5 3 3 10
TOTALS 7 5 3 3 10
Mt Ayr 9, Moravia 6
The Raiders held senior night Thursday, July 8 against the Moravia Mohawks.
The Raiders put up two runs in the first and second before allowing three runs to Moravia in the top of the fourth.
Mount Ayr responded with four runs to lead the Mohawks 6-3.
Moravia made it a tied game in the middle of the fifth after added three runs.
The Raiders were able to add three of their own to go up 9-6 and take the win.
At the plate, the Raiders recorded nine runs on 10 hits.
The Raiders committed three errors, while recording 21 putouts, seven assists on 31 total chances.
Dawson Swank received the win on the night, pitching 3.1 innings, allowing three runs on two hits and striking out three.
Jace Grose relieved and allowed three runs on four hits and struck out five.
“Finishing 18-4 and being conference champions, splitting it with Martensdale, if you told me at the beginning of the season that’s what we’d get I would’ve taken that in a heartbeat,” said coach Elwood. “Give Moravia credit, they came and played well. Not to make an excuse, but we came out flat and Moravia jumped on us and Dawson struggled with control which never happens, but he battled back and got us through it and we got the W.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
MM 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 6
MA 1 1 0 4 3 0 0 9
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 2 2 2 1
Ehlen 4 0 1 2
Trujillo 2 1 0 1
Shay 4 1 0 0
Knight 4 0 0 0
Knapp 4 1 1 0
Grose 4 1 0 0
Cole 0 0 1 0
Swank 3 1 2 0
Reynolds 3 3 2 1
TOTALS 30 10 9 5
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Swank 3.2 4 0 3 5
Grose 3.1 2 3 3 3
TOTALS 7 6 3 6 8