Raiders finish second in POI
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The Mount Ayr Raiders captured a second place finish in the final 2025 Pride of Iowa Conference baseball standings.
This comes after three POI wins last week over SW Valley, Wayne, and Lenox gave Mount Ayr a final POI record of 13-3.
The Raiders finish one-game behind POI champ Martensdale-St. Mary’s who won the league with a 14-2 record.
The POI had some good baseball teams this summer with four teams collecting 11 or more league wins. All nine POI teams won at least one conference game too. The Raiders have doubled their win total from last year (7) and with the next win, will tie the combined win total of the past two seasons (17). The Raiders 16-win total also ties for the second most wins the program has had in the past ten years. The 2021 team went 21-5 to set the high win mark during the same time.
The three-game week started with an 11-5 win at home over SW Valley. The Raiders beat the Timberwolves in Corning on June 12. Mount Ayr scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning for an early 3-0 lead. After the first of three straight 1-run SW Valley innings with runs, the Raiders led 5-1 after the second inning and 9-2 after three innings. The Raiders never trailed in the game and scored their final runs in the bottom of the fourth and sixth to take an 11-3 lead to the seventh.
Adler Reed was the winning pitcher after a complete game, seven-inning outing where he struck out 10 batters. He walked three, scattered six hits and gave up only one earned run. Mount Ayr had 10 hits in the game and were issued 12 walks by SW Valley pitching. Rowan Sackett, Jaxsen Walter, Tate Dugan, and Avery Wolfe all had two hits in the game. Walter, Trevin Victor, and Drew Graham each drove in a pair of runs. Hayes, Stogdill, Graham each had hits. Stogdill, sackett, Tate Dugan, and Tyler Still also had RBI’s.
The Raiders didn’t have any problems at Wayne the next night on July 1 in a 15-3 win. The Raiders needed all seven innings to take the game. Mount Ayr took a 5-0 lead after a 4-run second inning. Mount Ayr led 6-2 after five innings. The lead swelled to 12-3 going to the seventh inning. The Raiders then pushed five runs home in the top of the seventh to get their total to 15 runs. Mount Ayr beat the Falcons 11-0 on June 13 at home. The win over the Falcons was the ninth straight since 2017 over Wayne.
The Raiders had a dozen hits with four players having multi-hit games. The Raiders top three hitters in their batting order – Adler Reed, Hayes Stogdill, and Rowan Sackett – combined to go 7-for-12 with a double, triple and 3 RBI’s for Mount Ayr. Reed led Raider batters, going 3-for-5 with a double and RBI. Stogdill and Sackett each had two hits and an RBI. Drew Graham also had a pair of hits including a double and 2 RBI’s. Other hits were from Tate Dugan, Avery Wolfe, and Trevin Victor. For the second straight game, the Raiders were issued ten or more walks with 12 free passes in the game.
Three Raiders pitched in the game in Rowan Sackett, Tate Dugan, and Trevin Victor. Victor got the win after working four innings. Victor struck out three, walked four and faced 20 batters.
The last game of the week was at Lenox on July 3. The result was a 12-8 win over the Tigers. The game was originally scheduled for July 26, but the game was rescheduled due to weather. The Tigers brought a gaudy win total (17) to the game, but left with their ninth loss of the season.
Mount Ayr led 2-1 after the first inning, but found themselves behind 5-3 after the Tigers put up four runs in the bottom of the third inning. Mount Ayr would bust the game open in the top of the fourth inning, dropping seven runs on the Tigers to grab a 10-5 lead. Mount Ayr completed their scoring with single runs in the top of the fifth and sixth.
For the third straight game, the Raiders had 10 or more hits in the game, this time, 15 hits from Raider bats. Adler Reed and Drew Graham led with three hits each. Hayes Stogdill, Jaxsen Walter, and Tyler Still all had two hits while Rowan Sackett, Avery Wolfe, and Trevin Victor each had hits. Walter drove in 3 runs and Stogdill 2 runs.
Drew Graham was the winning pitcher after starting and throwing five and two-thirds innings. Graham struck out three, walked four and gave up eight runs on nine hits. Tate Dugan pitched the final inning and a third in scoreless relief.
