Mounder baseball shuts out Colfax in five innings
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by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
COLFAX — The first time the Colfax and Elk Mound baseball teams met back in April, the Mounders won 5-0 and the Vikings battled to make it last seven innings. This time around it was all Elk Mound as they shut the Vikings down 10-0 in a five inning game May 7 in Colfax.
Elk Mound stayed perfect on the season with its tenth conference win as many games and 12-0 overall. Colfax slipped to 3-7 in league and overall play with the loss.
The Mounders struck early and often, scoring three runs in the first inning by drawing three walks and getting a base hit by Carter Vieth. In the second inning, Brayden Borek reached on a Colfax error, stole second and came in on a single from Kamron Diermeier, who moved to second when Vieth was hit by a pitch, then came home on another Viking miscue.
Singles by Carter Garnett, Victor Noller and Borek allowed Garnett to score for a 6-0 Mounder lead after three innings. They were held scoreless in the fourth by Colfax hurler Zach Hiitola but put the game away with four tallies in the fifth. Garnett started the inning with a single, promptly swiped second base, moved to third on a base hit by Noller and came home on a double by Borek. Noller ended up scoring on a ground ball out, Borek came home on a passed ball and Vieth scored the fifth run by drawing a walk, moving up on Kaden Russo’s single and going to third and home on two passed balls.
The Vikings collected just two hits in the game but had plenty of chances to score. Orion Nichols singled in the bottom of the second and moved to second on a ground ball but didn’t move after that. In the bottom of the third, Drew Buchner singled with two outs and Nichols earned a free pass but a strikeout by Mounder pitcher Russo ended the threat. Nichols and Grant Cook took back-to-back walks in the fourth and Caleb Bailey moved them up on a ground ball but another Colfax batter whiffed to end the inning.
Diermeier came in for the final inning on the mound for Elk Mound, striking out two batters with a fly out in between.
Russo earned the win with six strikeouts and three walks in his four innings. Borek and Diermeier both picked up a pair of RBIs as the team banged out nine hits and the Mounders saw six different players steal a base with Diermeier and Garnett both stealing two. Mason Yarrington gave up five runs in two innings for Colfax and whiffed two batters and walked three to take the loss.
Colfax 5, Elmwood-Plum City 0
The Vikings (4-7, 4-7) bounced back from their loss to the Mounders by picking up their own shutout with a 5-0 win at home over the Elmwood-Plum City Wolves three days later. Yarrington was in complete control on the mound, hurling seven innings, allowing just three his with nine strikeouts and did not issue any free passes.
After a scoreless first inning, Hiitola started the second with a single and moved up on an erratic throw by the Wolves pitcher and came home on a Nichols base hit. Nichols moved all the way to third on a bad pickoff attempt by the Wolves hurler and scored the second run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Cook.
Buchner sent a lead-off single through the infield to open the third inning, reached third base on yet another bad pickoff attempt and scored on Kade Anderson’s single. Anderson eventually came home for the fourth run on a ground ball out off the bat of Nichols to lead 4-0.
Colfax tallied one more run in the fifth after Yarrington singled, swiped second and scored on Hiitola’s base hit. Yarrington iced the game by setting down six of the last seven batters for the Wolves.
Colfax wasn’t exactly stinging the ball with all six of their hits being singles, but with the help of four stolen bases by four different players, and taking advantage of the E-PC errors, it was enough to pick up the conference win. Nichols collected two RBIs and scored once, Anderson came home once and picked up an RBI, Hiitola batted 2-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI while Buchner added a single and came home once.
Colfax has three conference games on the slate this week. The Vikings were in Glenwood City Monday. Spring Valley came to town the following day and Boyceville plays in Colfax on Thursday. They finish off the regular season next Tuesday, May 17 with a home non-conference game versus Cochrane-Fountain City. WIAA playoff action gets underway on Thursday, May 23 with regional competitions.