Glenwood City baseballers earn first wins of the season in back-to-back home games
By Kelsie Hoitomt
GLENWOOD CITY — The Glenwood City baseball team had a successful past week with their first wins of the season coming after a doubleheader against Plum City last Thursday, May 16 and then on Friday against Elmwood.
Wins against PC
After a huge second inning with the Toppers scoring ten runs against the Plum City Blue Devils in the first game of the doubleheader, they pulled off their first win of the season with a 10-5 final.
The bats were on fire for the Toppers with the batting order going through a time and a half in the second inning with runs from Mitch Junker, Richard Croes, Jeff Kopacz, Jake Carlson, Brennan Kessler, Matt Tone, Mitch Hurtgen and Blayze Wood. Kessler and Tone each crossed home plate twice in the inning on an RBI double from Wood.
The Blue Devils scored one run in the first inning, two in the third and one in the fourth against the Hilltopper’s pitcher Kyle Peterson. They scored their final run against relief pitcher Joel Ormson in the fifth.
The second game ended just as well for the Hilltoppers with a 13-3 final after a run in the first inning from Croes, runs in the second from Hurtgen, Wood, Croes and Kopacz, four runs in the third from Hurtgen, Holmquist, Junker and Kopacz and the final three scores from Tone, Holmquist, Junker and Croes in the fourth.
Junker took to the mound for the Toppers in the second game for four innings with Ormson again stepping in as the relief pitcher in the fifth.
Big win over Raiders
The Toppers earned a huge win over the Elmwood Raiders after suffering a no-hitter against them the week before. Seventh inning pitcher, Zack Wink and the Hilltopper’s defense were able to seal the victory for the team by holding the Raiders within one point for a 12-11 final.
With the morale high, the Toppers carried over their success with the bat from the previous night onto the field the following day with five runs scored in the second inning from Carlson, Kessler, Tone, Holmquist and Hurtgen.
This put the score at 5-2 going into the third inning where the Raiders scored two additional runs to bring the game within one point. The Toppers edged out a three point gap in the score in the fifth inning after Kopacz scored on an RBI from Kessler, Carlson was hit home on an RBI from Tone and Holmquist had an RBI single to then advance Kessler.
However, the Raiders caught up quickly and knotted the score at nines after putting a runner across the plate in the sixth and then three in the seventh.
With the game in extra innings and the Toppers having used Peterson, Junker and Ormson on the mound, Wink was brought in and the Raiders scored their final two runs.
The Toppers earned their third straight victory on RBIs from Carlson, Kessler and Holmquist which brought home Croes, Kopacz and Peterson.
The Hilltoppers finished their suspended game against Spring Valley on Tuesday evening (May 21) and are scheduled to play their Level 1 Regional game this Friday, May 24 in Clear Lake against the Warriors.
