Mounders remain perfect on baseball diamond

by Samuel Ripp

Hitting, pitching and fielding are the fundamentals of baseball.

And the Elk Mound baseball team showed last week that they are pretty good at doing all three.

The Mounders scored 30 runs in three games while their pitching and defense allowed just a single runs in those contests, all victories, as they improved to 4-0 on the season.

After opening wiht a 10-0 win over Chetek-Weyerhaeuser back on April 7, the Mounders earned their second and third shoutout wins of in as many games this season.

Earning a pair of conference wins last week, Elk Mound whitewashed Boyceville 14-0 on the Bulldogs home field Monday, April 11 to open Dunn-St. Croix large conference play. The Mounders followed it up with a 13-0 home blanking of Glenwood City on Thursday, April 14.

Elk Mound capped the week at home Saturday, April 16 with a close 3-1 victory over Arcadia at Village Park.

The Mounders will look to keep their undefeated season going as they hosted Mondovi on Monday, April 18 before hitting the road for five straight games beginning with Durand on Thursday, April 21 followed by a game against St. Croix Central in Hammond on Friday, April 22, at Colfax on Monday, April 25 and then in Black River Falls on Tuesday, April 26.

Glenwood City

The Elk Mound baseball team was in action again on Thursday, April 14 as they took down Glenwood City by a score of 13-0 in five innings. This game would be the third consecutive game that the Mounders have shut their opponent out.

Senior pitcher Brandon Bohl continues to be the headliner for the Mounders this season as he has still yet to give up a run this year. Bohl pitched a one hit shutout in five innings on Thursday and also improved to 3-0 on the year. He also struck out eight on the afternoon and only walked two.

The Mounders would start the scoring off in the second inning by putting a four spot on the scoreboard. They would add three more the following inning to push their lead to seven. With Bohl on the mound they didn’t need many insurance runs, but in the bottom of the fourth they pushed six more runs across the plate.

This game was over after five innings due to the 13-0 lead. The Mounders have also scored at least ten runs in every game this season.

The Mounders collected ten hits on the afternoon, with just about everyone on the team getting involved. Picking up hits for the Mounders included: junior, Trey Mohr; senior, Alex Hollister; junior, Hunter Adleman who added two; junior, Carter Pritchard who collected two; senior, Cole Tyman who also added two hits; sophomore, Ethan Kjellberg; and Brandon Bohl.

As a team, they also collected nine RBIs since Glenwood City had a few errors on the afternoon. Picking up RBIs for the team were: Trey Mohr; Carter Pritchard with three; Cole Tyman with two; Ethan Kjellberg with two; and Brandon Bohl added one to help himself on the mound.

With the team not giving up a run yet this season, their defense has been a big part of this team.

“Brandon continued to keep the streak of scoreless innings going for our pitchers and our defense made all the plays behind him,” stated head coach Paul Andrea after his team’s win.

Boyceville

The Elk Mound baseball team strolled into Boyceville on Monday, April 11 and shut down the Bulldogs by a score of 14-0.

The Mounders scored in six of the seven innings to collect their second win. They started off with a couple runs in the second and third inning. They followed that up with four more runs over the next three innings. The bats finally exploded in the seventh inning where they knocked in eight runs to put the game away for good.

One of the keys to victory for the Mounders was their pitching lead by senior, Brandon Bohl. Bohl has now had back to back games where he has not allowed a run and the team has not allowed one either.

Bohl went five innings and picked up the win on the afternoon. He only gave up two hits and two walks while striking out nine on 75 pitches. He also helped himself out on the mound by collecting two hits and a walk while driving home one.

Trey Mohr also pitched two innings of this game only giving up one hit and one walk on the afternoon while striking out four.

The Mounders also collected fourteen hits as a team on the afternoon with everyone on the team picking up at least one hit and all but one collecting an RBI.

Collecting RBIs for the Mounders include: junior, Trey Mohr; senior, Alex Hollister with two; junior, Hunter Adleman; junior, Carter Pritchard; senior, Cole Tyman with two; senior, Grant Kjellberg; senior, Ryan Conlin with two.

Elk Mounds coach Paul Andrea is happy about his teams start to the season but games will become more challenging as the year goes on.

“The teams we’ve played so far have been young and inexperienced, but tougher games are ahead,” stated Andrea after the team’s victory.

Arcadia

The Elk Mound baseball team was back in action on Saturday, April 16 to take on Arcadia and came out with a 3-1 victory. This win would put their record at 4-0 on the early year, but it was the first time this year they have not scored at least ten runs.

The Mounders would kick the scoring off right away in the first inning, by grabbing a quick one run lead. They would then add to that total in the bottom of the second inning by scoring two more runs to take a 3-0 lead. As a team, the Mounders had not given up a run this season, but Arcadia changed that in the fourth inning. They scored their only run in the top of the fourth inning, but it was not earned. The Mounders had two errors on the day that helped score the run.

The player of the day for the Mounders was junior pitcher, Trey Mohr. Mohr pitched a complete game only allowing one hit and one walk on the day. Mohr also struck out seven Arcadia batters. Mohr also helped himself out at the plate as the leadoff hitter. He went 1-1 with two runs and drew three walks.

The Mounders collected seven hits on the day and they belonged to: senior, Alex Hollister; senior, Cole Tyman; senior, Grant Kjellberg; sophomore, Ethan Kjellberg with two; and senior, Brandon Bohl.

With the team scoring a season low in runs, they still had two players pick up RBIs in the game and they were Grant Kjellberg, and Ethan Kjellberg with two.

The Elk Mound pitchers have been lights out this year and still have their streak of not allowing an earned run up to four games now. With Brandon Bohl being their ace and Trey Mohr pitching really well, they will look to keep their strong start going.