Colfax drops opening contest to Durand

DURAND—Finding a dry field to play on, the Colfax baseball team traveled to Durand to open the season April 26 and showed signs of playing on a field for the first time this season as they were dumped 14-4 in a five inning contest by the Durand Panthers.

Durand jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first inning, six of those runs coming with two outs as the Vikings committed two errors in the inning. Colfax picked up a pair of runs in the second when Jarrod Rudi reached on an error and crossed the plate on a hit from Jeremiah Wait, and Logan Mittelstadt came home after Austin Lee drew a walk. Jeremiah Harder smacked a double in the third inning and scored on Mittelstadt’s second hit of the game and Michael Hover scored the final Colfax run in the fourth after slamming a leadoff triple and coming in on a sacrifice fly by Ethin Kiekhafer.

Control problems from the mound told the tale as three Colfax pitchers combined for 11 walks and eight hits in the game, but the defense didn’t help matters with five errors. Hover took the loss, starting the game and giving up seven runs with just one hit and walking four Panthers while striking out one. Sawyer DeMoe took over and went 1 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on four hits and also walked four batters with one K, and Kiekhafer finished the game off, giving up three runs on three hits with three walks and a pair of strikeouts.

“It was our first time on the field. We had too many walks and our defense needs to improve,” coach Tim Wilson said.

Colfax     0  2  1  1  0 – 4

Durand   7  4  0  3  X – 14