Mounders prevail over Vikings on ball diamond
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ELK MOUND pitcher Victor Noller zipped a pitch to home plate in the contest against Colfax played May 11 in Elk Mound.
—photo by Marlys Kruger
by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
ELK MOUND — In what started out as a blowout, the Dunn-St. Croix Conference baseball contest between the Colfax Vikings and Elk Mound Mounders turned out to be a pretty competitive game before the Mounders held on for a 13-9 win in the game played in Elk Mound Thursday, May 11.
The Mounders jumped ahead 4-0 in the bottom of the first inning with Kamron Diermeier starting things off by drawing a walk and stealing second base. Ryan Bartig doubled, Carter Vieth reached on a Viking error, Lucas Johnson and Carter Garnett both took free passes and Jake Osborne banged a single to account for the runs.
Mounder hurler Lucas Johnson set the Viking batters down in order for the second straight inning then Elk Mound got the bats rolling again. Bartig drew a one-out walk, Vieth slammed a double, and with two outs, Johnson spanked a single, Garnett reached on another Viking miscue, Peyton Vieth took a walk and Victor Noller banged a single and when the inning finally ended it was 9-0 for the Mounders.
The Vikings decided to make a game of it however, and with one out in the top of the third they had some help from the Mounders when Elijah Entzminger and Mitch Medin drew walks. Mason Yarrington reached on an Elk Mound error, Dylyn Hiitola smacked a single and Ashton Greenwell followed suit, Kade Anderson and Brian Tuschl both earned free passes and Zach Hiitola pounded a double and the inning ended with the Mounder advantage cut to 9-5.
Colfax relief pitcher Zach Hiitola issued a two-out walk to Kaden Russo who swiped second, but he was stranded there on a strikeout in the bottom of the third.
The Vikings added two runs in the top of the fourth without the benefit of a hit off Mounder reliever Victor Noller. Zach Hiitola was hit by a pitch, Medin reached on an error, Yarrington took a free pass, Dylyn Hiitola was plunked by a pitch, and another Mounder error with a fielder’s choice cut the Mounder lead to 9-7.
The Mounders managed to get a run back in their half of the fourth when Garnett drew yet another walk off a Viking hurler and moved around the bases on a Peyton Vieth base hit, a passed ball and a fly ball out.
COLFAX senior Dylyn Hiitola smashed a single and double against Elk Mound in the conference matchup played May 11 in Elk Mound.
—photo by Marlys Kruger
Colfax continued to fight back when Entzminger used his power and speed to smash a lead-off triple in the top of the fifth. He scored on a Zach Hiitola single but the Mounders pulled off a slick double play to erase him off the base path. That turned out to be huge as Yarrington singled, Dylyn Hiitola slammed an RBI double and a walk to Greenwell had runners on first and third. A strikeout by new pitcher Kamron Diermeier ended the threat with Elk Mound still ahead 10-9.
Elk Mound picked up a run in the bottom of the fifth when Bartig started with a single, stole second and came around on Carter Vieth’s single.
After putting the Vikings down in order in the top of the sixth, they added two more in their sixth when Noller slammed a two out single, Diermeier walked, Bartig singled, and an error followed. Their defense and pitching took over as they put the Vikings down 1-2-3 in the sixth and seventh innings.
Osborne had just two hits on the day but was credited with six RBIs for the Mounders. Bartig batted 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and three runs scored, Carter Vieth was 2-for-4, coming home twice and picking up an RBI while Noller was 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Elk Mound used three different hurlers in the game with Johnson starting and finishing the contest to earn the win. He gave up four runs on one hit with three walks and five Ks.
Zach Hiitola batted 2-for-4 for the Vikings with two RBIs and two runs scored. Big brother Dylyn was 2-for- 3 with four RBIs and came home once while Entzminger, Yarrington and Greenwell all had a hit and Medin scored twice.
Greenwell absorbed the loss, giving up nine runs with just four of them earned, but issued five walks with no strikeouts.