Raiders rebound from first loss
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By RYAN STONEBRAKER
CORYDON, Iowa — The first loss of a season stings, but it is what you do with it that tells how a team is built. After falling to top-ranked Class 1A Martensdale-St. Marys earlier in the week, the Raider baseball team got back on the winning ways with a big 10-5 road win at Wayne last Friday.
Mount Ayr came into the game having won 16 of the last 18 games between the schools going back to 2009.
Wayne looked like they were going to pull off an upset and capture their first conference win of the season, taking a 4-0 lead after two innings with a four-run second. The inning had only one hit, but Wayne drew two walks and had two batters hit by pitches in the inning.
Mount Ayr would score its first runs pushing three home in the top of the third inning. A Hayes Stogdill double scored Adler Reed for the first run. Stogdill scored on an RBI single by Jaxsen Walter and would also score on an RBI single by Drew Graham. Wayne would score their last run in the bottom of the third to increase the lead to 5-3.
The Raiders took their first lead in the top of the fifth inning. A two-run double by Graham scored Rowan Sackett and Walter to tie the score at 5-5. Graham would later score on a passed ball to give Mount Ayr a 6-5 lead after five innings. The Raiders would get a run in the top of the sixth and two more in the top of the seventh for their third straight inning with runs, to take a 10-5 lead. Wayne could not recover once the Raiders grabbed the 6-5 lead.
The two teams will play again in Mount Ayr on June 30.
Graham relieved starter Tyler Still and had a great pitching outing, going five innings. He gave up no runs on no hits and struck out 10 batters. He faced 15 batters and got the pitching win. Still pitched two innings and gave up four runs before giving way to Graham.
Mount Ayr had 12 hits and had five batters, their top-5 batters in the order, with multi-hit games. Graham was 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI. Walter, Sackett, Stogdill and Adler Reed each had two hits. Stogdill, Sackett and Walter each had RBI.
Mount Ayr was at East Union Monday and home against Nodaway Valley on Tuesday. The Raiders will have a busy end of the week with a game at SE Warren on Thursday and at the Moravia MoHawk Invitational tournament. Teams there are Albia, Moravia and Van Buren. Next week a pair of home games start the week with Bedford in town on June 24 and Lenox in down on June 25.
