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Hilltopper baseball season ends

BRAD KESSLER

PLAY AT SECOND — Glenwood City senior Brad Kessler had his eyes on the ball as he prepared to make a play on Elk Mound’s Chase Rhude, who was attempting to steal second base. Rhude was called safe on the play. Elk Mound went on to win the regional baseball game 10-0. —photo by Shawn DeWitt

By Missy Klatt

GLENWOOD CITY – The Hilltoppers played their last two baseball games this past week. On Monday, May 21st they hosted the Mondovi Buffaloes and then on Thursday they traveled to Elk Mound to face the Mounders in the first round of regional competition. In both of these match ups they fell short, losing both games.

Mondovi

In the game against Mondovi, Coach Shane Strong felt that this was one of their better games. He goes on to say that “we didn’t give up a walk and we made them earn their runs.” He admits “we just couldn’t hit their pitcher.”

The game started with the Buffaloes putting up one run in the first and one run in the second. The Toppers then held them to a quick three and out in the third. Unfortunately the Buffaloes charged back in the top of the fourth adding four runs. In the bottom of the fourth Hadin DeSmith and Tanner Davis crossed the plate to narrow the Buffalo lead to four with the score 6-2.

In the top of the fifth, the Buffaloes put up one more run. In the bottom half of the inning the Toppers tried to get something going but didn’t have quite enough mojo to get their two stranded runners home. The sixth inning was scoreless with both teams leaving runners stranded.

The Toppers again held the Buffaloes to just three batters in the seventh but they still couldn’t get their runners home in the bottom half of the inning, once again leaving runners out on base.

GLENWOOD CITY 2, MONDOVI 7
Mondovi…………………….1 1 0 4 1 0 0 – 7
Glenwood City…………..0 0 0 2 0 0 0 –  2

GC (AB-R-H): Janson 2-0-0, DeSmith 4-1-0, Kessler 1-0-0, Nadeau 1-0-0, Loring 2-0-0, Davis 3-1-0, Lagerstrom 1-0-0, Hurtgen 3-0-1, Fayerweather 4-0-0, Logghe 2-0-0.

Pitchers: DeSmith: (L) 4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 0BB, 3 SO; Janson: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 SO.

Gavin Janson

HILLTOPPERS’ freshman shortstop Gavin Janson makes a throw to first base after fielding a ground ball during Glenwood City’s Division 3 regional baseball game at Elk Mound last Thursday, may 24. The Toppers end their season with a 10-0 loss to the Mounders. —photo by Shawn DeWitt

Elk Mound

Elk Mound was seeded third and the Toppers sixth in this first round matchup of the regional playoffs for Division 3 Baseball. Unfortunately for the Toppers this turned in to an extremely short game as they virtually had no offense. For the five inning game the Toppers only sent 18 players to the plate and they could only muster three hits. One each from Marcus Hurtgen, Bryce Fayerweather and Gavin Janson.

The Mounders on the other hand got things going right away in the first inning putting up four runs, thanks in part to three straight walks from the Toppers. They then added four more in the third and finally two in the bottom of the fifth, ending the game with the 10 run mercy rule.

For the Toppers it wasn’t a pretty way to end a less than stellar season that only produced two wins.

Coach Strong had this to say about the season in general: “Coming into our season we wanted to focus on learning the game and skill development. Our kids demonstrated a positive attitude which led to improvement throughout the season. We were able to compete against the top programs in our conference in close games. We like the direction we are headed for the future. As a coaching staff we are proud of the kids. They have laid a foundation for future Topper baseball teams. I’m excited to continue working with our returning kids next year.”

GLENWOOD CITY 0, ELK MOUND 10

Glenwood City………………..0 0 0 0 0 –  0
Elk Mound………………………4 0 4 0 2 – 10 

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