Elk Mound whitewashes Colfax in baseball showdown
ELK MOUND — There is only one word for the Elk Mound’s baseball win over Colfax last Friday: Ouch!
The Mounders played host to the Vikings April 21 as the two teams renewed their long-standing rivalry for the 2017 season. But the match-up quickly turned into a rout as Elk Mound pummeled and blanked their Colfax counterpart 22-0 in five innings.
The Vikings, who had just one hit in the contest compared to the Mounders’ 16, barely made it through their order twice in the game, while Elk Mound traveled almost all the way through the order twice in the fourth inning alone on its way to a big win over the Colfax squad.
The Mounders opened the first by putting away Kamdon Quast, Nate Polden and Tyler Snyder before sending Dylan Curry to the plate in the bottom half of the inning.
Curry opened the game for Elk Mound with a triple, and his teammates just kept batting each other around. The junior shortstop, Trey Mohr, Blake Rosenthal and Hunter Adleman all made it home in the first before Colfax starting pitcher Nate Polden struck out Carter Pritchard looking to end the inning.
The Vikings sent Tyler Sarauer, Chris Scharlau and Jackson Harvey up to face Kjellberg in the second, and he sent them all back to the dugout to bring the orange and black back to the plate.
Mohr, Kjellberg and Lew scored again in the bottom of the second courtesy of a triple shot from Rosenthal. Colfax again sent just three hitters to the plate in the top of the third. Mitch Harmon was put out on a swift toss from catcher Kole Ploeckelman to first baseman Dakota Bedell, and Nick Jenson and Cole Kiekhafer struck out at the plate.
Elk Mound sent Curry, Mohr and Dane Lew home to open the third, and capped the inning with Brett Lew and Carter Pritchard crossing home plate to make the score 12-0 in favor of the Mounders.
WARMING UP — Colfax pitcher Kamdon Quast took the mound in the team’s April 21 road trip to Elk Mound. He took over for Nate Polden after the former gave up 10 runs in the first three innings. —photo by Cara L. Dempski
Quast struck out at the top of the fourth before Snyder and Polden were put out at first after pulling line drives to left field. Viking head coach Kirk Secraw opted to swap Polden for Quast on the Mounder for the fourth inning.
Elk Mound then went back to work offensively, putting up 10 runs in their final at-bat to make the score 22-0.
The Vikings’ Taylor Sarauer walked to open the fifth. But Scharlau was struck out looking, Harvey struck out swinging, and Harmon was put out at first to end the game.
The win went a long way to washing away the sour taste the Mounders had the previous evening when it was shutout 12-0 in a road game against Eau Claire Regis.
Meanwhile, Colfax, who has been outscored 53-3 in its first four games, remained winless.
The Mounders collected 16 hits in game off of a a trio of Colfax hurlers – starter Nate Polden (2 1/3 innings), Kamdon Quast (1) and Devin Lamm (2/3). The Elk Mound hit parade was led by Dylan Curry, who went 4-for-5 at the plate with three doubles, 3 RBIs and 4 runs scored. Trey Mohr and Ethan Kjellberg also had multiple hits, RBIs and scores; Mohr collected three hits and the same in RBIs and scored in four plate appearances while Kjellberg knocked a pair of hits including a double and scored three times and finished with a trio of RBIs. Seven other Mounders recorded a hit.
Colfax’ lone hit came in the third when Mitch Harmon slapped a lead-off single.
Kjellberg pitch all five innings for the win, giving up just the one hit while striking out ten and walking none. Polden took the loss for the Vikings as he surrendered five walks six hits and ten runs in two and a third innings of work.
The Mounders headed to Arcadia the following day, April 22, for a game against the Raiders, while Colfax broke for the weekend before welcoming Elmwood to their home field April 24.
Elk Mound welcomed Spring Valley to the Village Park the evening of April 24.
COLFAX 0, ELK MOUND 22
Colfax………………………0 0 0 0 0 — 0
Elk Mound………………..4 3 5 10 0 — 22