Raiders fall in substate final
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The Raider baseball team traveled to Oskaloosa on Tuesday night to face a tough New London Tiger baseball team that boasted a 25-1 season headed into the substate final.
NL 4, Mt. Ayr 2
It was a pitching dual between New London’s Hecniel Rodriguez and Mount Ayr’s Briar Knapp.
Knapp struckout 12 batters in the loss to the Tigers, while Rodriguez struckout nine.
New London struck first, after Ryan Richey hit his first home run of the season out of left field with two outs on the board.
The Raiders answered back with a run of their own on an Adler Shay groundout RBI.
The top of the fifth saw a missed opportunity for Mount Ayr.
With one out, Rodriguez walked Jaixen Frost and Trae Ehlen.
Erik Trujillo struckout for out two with Ehlen off the base and New London’s catcher, Tucker Gibbar, throwing a laser to first base, putting Ehlen in a run-down.
The Tigers recorded the tag as Ehlen dove to first for out three.
The Tigers put the go-ahead run across after a Mount Ayr error saw a runner, who reached on a walk, cross home plate.
New London went up 3-1 before the Raiders saw a little life in the top of the sixth.
The Raiders saw Shay and Jaydon Knight reach on base hits, prompting a mound visit and pitching change, with the Tigers bringing in Kooper Schulte.
A groundout by Briar Knapp advanced runners and the Jace Grose was hit by the pitch to load the bases.
Dawson Swank grounded out, however, he was able to knock in a run, making it a 3-2 contest.
Schulte and company were able to get the third out as Ryce Reynolds hit a solid grounder that was thrown to first for the out, just as Reynolds foot hit the bag.
Dawson Swank came in to relieve Knapp on the mound as Knapp hit the pitch count limit.
Swank gave up one run and two hits in his short stint on the bump.
The Raiders saw two groundouts and a strikeout to end the night, and season, against New London.
“There were a couple of bang-bang plays that didn’t go our way and I think those would have made a big difference, but that’s baseball,” said coach Chris Elwood. “I couldn’t be prouder of these guys. Briar threw his heart out, as a senior on the mound. Ultimately, in a game like this someone has to lose. We would have loved to win and it hurts right now, but once we have time to process it, the kids will see what a fantastic season we had.”
The Raiders got to the substate final after defeating Martensdale-St. Marys for the District championship on Saturday.
The Raiders and Blue Devils faced each other for the third time this season, but this time in the substate semifinal game, on the Blue Devils home field in St. Marys.
Mt. Ayr 8, MSTM 2
Previously, Mount Ayr and Martensdale-St. Marys split games with the Blue Devils coming out on top in their first meeting, a neutral contest during a tournament, and recently in Mount Ayr with the Raiders on top by a score of 8-3 and also claiming a share of the Conference Championship title with the Blue Devils.
This contest was for a District 10 contest and the winner’s season would continue with a win.
The Raiders were visitors so took to the plate first, facing left-handed pitcher, Carson Elbert. Jaydon Knight would be on the mound for the Raiders.
No one scored until the bottom of the third and Elbert was able to do something only one other pitcher had done this season. Strike out Jaixen Frost.
The strikeout seemed to pump-up the Blue Devil dugout as they went into the bottom of the second.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the third when Martensdale scored their only runs of the night.
With two outs and a runner on second, Martensdale reached on an error and the wild throw from third to first saw the first run across.
A double moved runners into scoring position once more and a base-hit RBI saw the second run across.
The fourth inning was big for Mount Ayr as Elbert began to give up hits to the Raider bats.
The scoring started after a reach-on-error saw Knight at first and Briar Knapp hit a double to put them both in position to score.
Jace Grose stepped up to the plate and a single into left saw two runners across home.
“It felt great, I was just focusing on putting the ball in play,” said Grose. “We haven’t seen many left-handed pitchers this year. We saw a lot of fastballs and curveballs.”
Dawson Swank laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved advanced Grose before Ryce Reynolds reached base on an error that also saw Grose put the go-ahead run across home plate.
Martensdale wouldn’t go down without a fight, however. With two-outs, the Blue Devils reached on a walk and two singles to load bases.
A groundout for the third out left all three stranded and the momentum going in the Raiders favor.
The fifth was a quick inning with both teams putting up three and sitting down three.
It was the sixth when the Raiders put the game to bed.
Grose drew the lead-off walk, followed by a walk from Swank. Ryce Reynolds hit a bunt that saw his State Track speed come into play as he reached first to load the bases with no outs.
Jaixen Frost, who was one-for-three at the plate, caught a piece of the ball and drove it to the centerfield fence for a double and two-RBI which also prompted a pitching change for the Blue Devils.
Matt Hughes, the pitcher the Raiders saw in Mount Ayr, took the mound.
Trae Ehlen showed off his speed, reaching on a bunt to re-load the bases with no outs, put Erik Trujillo in good position.
Trujillo hit a single-RBI to put the sixth run on the board for the Raiders.
Jaydon Knight would add two more before Martensdale-St. Marys ended the inning.
Knight and company, put the Blue Devils down in order to head into the final inning of regulation.
The Raiders recorded one hit in the seventh before Martensdale had their final shot.
The Blue Devils recorded a double and the runner made it to third on a groundout.
With one out and a runner at third, the Raiders were looking for easy outs and the play to be made at one.
Dawson Swank was on the mound for the Raiders and Jaydon Knight went back to first base.
Martensdale hit the ball up high and into the glove of now-first baseman, Knight for out two, but Martesndale’s baserunner took off for home as the ball hit the glove.
Knight threw a laser 120 foot strike to Frost at home plate for the tag and double play to put Mount Ayr back on top as back-to-back District Champions.
“Trae Ehlen’s in right field and he’s telling me no no no,” said Knight. “My arm was telling me yes.”
Frost, who has now caught two of those at the plate at Martensdale, with the last one from Trujillo against Lamoni, had all the confidence in the world with Knight.
“I saw that ball coming in perfectly and was yes yes yes the whole way,” said Frost. “It was right on the money. I tagged him right in the shoe, I felt the spike in my glove.”
Both Knight and Frost commended Martensdale’s pitcher on a great game.
“Elbert threw a really good game and his stuff was really working, it obviously worked against me,” said Frost. “I got one off of him and that’s all I could ask for.”
“They are a good quality team,” said Knight. “We knew they were going to hit the ball. I just wanted to get on the mound and get the feel of it.”
Coach Chris Elwood was able to reflect on his second win in his career against Martensdale and compliment the team he is fielding this season.
“It was huge [this win] and these guys never quit. We were down three to one at our place and two to nothing tonight. We don’t drop our heads, we don’t start sulking, we keep playing baseball,” said coach Elwood. “We had good quality at-bats, bunted the ball very well. It’s been an outstanding season, all credit to these kids, they are great players and great kids and it’s been a fun ride. Hopefully we can get one more and see what happens.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
MA 0 0 0 3 0 5 0 8
MSM 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2
Hitting
AB H R BI
Frost 4 2 0 2
Ehlen 5 1 1 0
Trujillo 5 2 1 1
Shay 4 0 0 0
Knight 3 1 0 2
Ehlen 0 0 1 0
Knapp 4 1 1 0
Grose 3 2 2 2
Swank 1 1 1 0
Reynolds 2 0 1 0
TOTALS 31 10 8 7
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Knight 6 6 0 2 6
Swank 1 1 0 0 0
TOTALS 7 7 0 2 6
