Raider bats staying hot

Mt. Ayr 5, Lenox 1
The Raiders had a tough outing against a strong Lenox Tiger team last week after going nine innings at The Den in Lenox.
The two Pride of Iowa teams were scoreless through five innings, until Jaixen Frost was batted in by fellow junior, Jaydon Knight.
The Raiders were looking to take a 1-0 win after taking the lead into the seventh, but the Tigers kept the game alive with a run in the bottom of the seventh after a fly ball to right field was lost in the light and landed to the left of rightfielder Cody Larson, who had a tough night, individually.
Mount Ayr put Frost on the mound where he struck-out three in a row to put the game into extras and give the Raiders a fighting chance to win the game.
The eighth inning saw no runs by either team and in the top of the ninth where the Raiders put Adler Shay and Jace Grose on base. Larson, who was feeling pretty down about his performance up to that point in the game, stepped up to the plate and saw the perfect pitch come across for a double that drove in Shay and Grose to give the Raiders the go-ahead run, while also picking up his confidence, along with the mood of the dugout.
“I wasn’t feeling the greatest, but I knew I shouldn’t put my head down and quit, I figured I should try to get the win,” said Larson. “I tried to think about good things.”
Larson was still a little down after the game, despite the win, stating he wanted to work on his fielding in practice.
“I have mixed feelings about it,” said Larson. “I’m still kind of bummed about my errors, but it feels good to get a nice hit and put us in the lead. I’ll probably work on my outfielding to make sure I can catch the balls. I struck out a few times too, so work on both of those things.”
Drew Ehlen came up to the plate next and doubled to put Larson across the plate and see the Raiders leading 4-1.
The Raiders scored the last, and fifth, run of the night after Reynolds took first after being hit by a pitch and a pick-off attempt missed the first baseman’s glove and Ehlen stole home.
The Tigers eventually got their opportunity to battle back and stay alive, but Frost threw two strikeouts and the final out was hit back to the mound and was thrown out at first.
Coaches Bill Huntington and Anthony Maldonado were thrilled about the hard-fought win.
“What a fantastic win,” said coach Huntington. “I felt a couple of times the wind was out of our sails and we were battling uphill and the kids stayed true to what we’ve been talking about and doing in practice.”
Coach Maldonado was still processing the win after the game.
“I think I’m still processing it all. There was a lot of people that stepped-up when given the opportunity,” said coach Maldonado. “Cody could have easily thrown in the towel. He came in and stepped-up, and at the end of the day our pitching was phenomenal too.”
It was also a bittersweet victory for Huntington, a Lenox native.
“We all traded a few smiles during the game,” said coach Huntington. “It’s always good to come home. I grew up 200 yards from here and played a gazillion baseball games out here.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
MA 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
LEN 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
9 F
MA 4 5
LEN 0 1
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 1 0 1 0
Reynolds 4 2 0 0
Knight 4 0 0 1
Stark 3 0 0 0
Shay 2 0 1 0
Grose 4 1 1 0
Sackett 4 0 0 0
Larson 2 1 1 2
Ehlen 3 1 1 1
TOTALS 28 5 5 4
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Frost 3 0 0 0 7
Knight 2 1 0 0 4
Grose 4 4 1 1 3
TOTALS 9 5 1 1 14
Mt. Ayr 16, SWV 6
The Raiders stayed on the road after the extra-inning win over Lenox and kept their bats hot to defeat the Southwest Valley Timberwolves 16-6.
The Raiders enjoyed a 10-run lead before the Timberwolves scored their first run.
Mount Ayr continued finding ways to score until the game finished after five innings.
The Raiders started Daron Drake on the mound where he went three innings, throwing 59 pitches, allowing one run, two hits and striking out four batters to get the win on the night.
Riley Stark came in to relieve Drake and allowed five runs on three hits and walked five.
Jaixen Frost closed the game out with 19 pitches thrown, two batters walked and two struck out.
Behind the mound, the Raiders recorded three errors, while recording 14 putouts on 25 chances with eight assists.
At the plate, the Raiders were led by Tyler Martin who recorded a 1.000 average, stepping into the box three times and recording three hits, three runs and one RBI.
Martin also recorded seven putouts on the night with eight total chances, with one assist.
Martin, who also plays with the Kansas City Royals team brings a lot of experience to the Raiders, while only being a freshman, but enjoys playing with his classmates.
“It’s always fun to come back at home and play with the guys you go to school with every day,” said Martin. “It’s a really high level down there [in Kansas City] and I can take all that coaching and experiences of the top competition in the US and make our team better.”
The coaches were pleased with another Pride of Iowa win for the Raiders.
“It was a very good win. I’ll be honest with you, I was nervous coming into tonight’s game because they are led by Keegan Longabaugh and he’s a very good coach,” said coach Bill Huntington. “I thought we really hit the ball hard tonight and when you come off a big game like Lenox, you’re going to have a mental letdown but I don’t think we had a mental letdown.”
Coach Maldonado shared the same view as coach Huntington.
“Anytime you can put pressure on the other team, putting the ball in play it’s a good thing,” said coach Maldonado. “I like that we made solid contact throughout the night.
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
MA 4 4 2 2 4 x x 16
SWV 0 0 1 1 4 x x 6
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 3 2 2 4
Reynolds 4 2 2 0
Martin 3 3 3 1
Knight 3 0 1 3
Shay 3 2 3 2
Grose 2 1 2 1
Drake 2 1 0 2
Larson 3 0 0 0
Ehlen 3 1 2 0
Sackett 0 0 0 0
Stark 1 0 0 0
Cole 0 0 1 0
TOTALS 27 12 16 13
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Frost .2 0 0 0 2
Drake 3 2 0 1 4
Stark 1.1 3 3 5 0
TOTALS 5 5 3 6 6
Mt. Ayr 10, Bedford 5
The Raiders were able to end the week infront of their home crowd on Friday as they hosted the Bedford Bulldogs.
The Raiders went up early in the first with three runs on the board, before the Bulldogs added one in the second.
The Raiders really opened the game when they scored five in the third and pushed two across the plate in the second.
The Bulldogs were down 10-1, but kept the game alive with another run in the sixth before added three in the seventh, giving the Raiders the win.
The Raider bats were led by Jaixen Frost who saw four hits in four at bats with three runs, one home run and three RBI on the three run dinger.
The Raiders saw an average of .367 on the night and pushed seven runners across the plate.
On the mound, Jace Grose threw 67 pitches in 4.1 innings, allowing one run off six hits and struck out four.
Frost pitched two innings, throwing 26 pitches, allowing one run off one hit and struck out two.
Freshman Trevin Victor was called to the mound, making his first varsity appearance.
Victor, a lefty, came in and threw 29 pitches, allowing three runs off three hits and picked two runners at first.
“It was pretty nice but it was really intimidating.” said Victor on his first appearance on the mound.
Victor summed up his experience on the mound as “awesome.”
Behind the mound the Raiders committed two errors and recorded 21 putouts on 32 total chances with nine assists.
“I think it’s a great win. Bedford is a great team. They had Nodaway Valley down two-zip last night. They came out and they put Grose in play the first time through, so I think it was a very good win against a good team,” said coach Huntington. “I think the score is very misleading. We got on a roll and put balls into play and we only had two strikeouts all night. We should be really happy.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
BED 0 1 0 0 0 1 3 5
MA 3 0 5 0 2 0 0 10
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 4 4 3 3
Reynolds 5 2 1 0
Martin 2 1 0 2
Knight 1 0 2 0
Shay 3 2 1 0
Grose 4 0 0 0
Larson 4 0 0 0
Sackett 3 1 1 2
Ehlen 3 1 2 0
Victor 0 0 0 0
Drake 1 0 0 0
TOTALS 30 11 10 7
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Frost 2 1 0 1 2
Grose 4.1 6 1 1 4
Victor .2 3 2 3 0
TOTALS 7 10 3 5 6
Mt. Ayr 14, Murray 0
The Raiders hosted the 2-2 Murray Mustangs on Monday where they took a 14-0 victory through five innings.
On the mound for the Raiders was Raines Sackett who through all five innings, allowing only two hits and striking out five batters.
Behind Sackett was a fielding corp that boasted a .950 fielding percentage, committing only one error and recording 15 putouts on 20 total chances, with four assists.
The Raider bats were hot with Jaixen Frost and Tyler Martin both perfect on the night with Frost recording three hits in three at-bats with four runs and two homers that saw three runs batted in.
Martin was two-for-two at the plate with a single, a double and three RBI.
Jaydon Knight also had a moon-shot that resulted in three runs. Knight was one-for-two on the night.
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
MUR 0 0 0 0 0 x x 0
MA 4 3 4 3 x x x 14
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 3 3 4 3
Reynolds 2 1 4 0
Martin 2 2 0 3
Shay 3 2 1 2
Knight 2 1 1 3
Grose 1 0 0 0
Stark 3 2 0 0
Larson 3 0 0 0
Ehlen 3 0 2 0
Sackett 0 0 0 0
Cole 0 0 2 0
TOTALS 22 11 14 11
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Sackett 5 2 0 0 5
TOTALS 5 2 0 0 5