Toppers fall to Durand and Elk Mound in baseball
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TRYING TO TURN TWO — Glenwood City second baseman Nelson Polen tried to turn a double play as he fired the ball toward first base after stepping on second for the force out during the Toppers’ baseball game in Elk Mound last Friday. Glenwood City lost the game 15-5 in five innings. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
As the regular season winds down, the Glenwood City baseball team was left looking for its second win of the season and first in Dunn-St. Croix action, after it dropped a pair of five-inning conference road games to fall to 0-12 in the league standings.
The Hilltoppers, 1-12 overall, opened June with an 11-1 setback to the Panthers of Durand last Tuesday and were then mashed by the Mounders of Elk Mound 15-5 last Friday, June 4.
Glenwood City hosted Mondovi in the conference and regular-season finale Monday evening before, heading into the WIAA Division 4 baseball playoffs this Thursday. The Hilltoppers were given the seven seed and will travel to Eau Claire to play the second-seeded Immanuel Lutheran Lancers with the winner taking on the victor of the Clear Lake (#3) versus Augusta (#6) contest next Tuesday, June 15.
Durand
Glenwood City actually lead 1-0 in this contest played on the Panthers home turf after Brady McCarthy opened the game with single and eventually scored on a passed ball.
Unfortunately, that would be the only run the Hilltopper scored all game.
Durand answered with six runs in the bottom half of the first and never looked back as it collected five base hits off of starter Gavin Janson and took advantage of four Toppers’ errors in that first inning alone.
The Panthers tacked on three more runs in the third and added their final two tallies in the fourth for the ten-run win in five innings.
Glenwood City finished with just five hits in the game with Max Janson getting two of those in three plate appearance. The others, all singles, were by McCarthy, Noah Brite, and Gavin Janson.
Gavin Janson, who went two and a third innings, suffered the loss surrendering seven runs on seven hits while striking out two, and walking four. Younger brother Max Janson pitched the final inning and two-thirds giving up five hits and four more runs against three walks.
Defensively, Glenwood City committed seven errors and had five passed balls.
Elk Mound
A nine-run second inning spelled doom for Glenwood City when it played in Elk Mound last Friday.
Trailing just 2-0, the Hilltoppers were looking to get out of the second inning with minimal damage but a missed call helped to extended the Mounders at bat and they put nine runs across home plate to take a commanding 11-0 lead.
On a high throw to first base, the Toppers’ Aaron Brigham leaped to snare the ball and appeared to have touched the Elk Mound runner with his glove, even knocking the Mounder player sideways a bit, but the field umpire ruled that Brigham had missed the tag calling the runner safe.
That threw open the scoring flood gates for Elk Mound who took full advantage to ring the scoreboard nine times on eight hits including a double, seven Topper errors, a pair of wild pitches, and a free pass against starter Max Janson.
Janson gave up four more hits and two runs in the third before being relieved by Marcis DeSmith in the fourth.
Down 13-0, Glenwood City rallied for five runs in the fifth as it looked to extend the game to its full seven innings. In that frame, Brendan Booth reached on an error, Jayden Quinn singled, and Nelson Polen walked to load the bases. Brady McCarthy singled to score Booth. Noah Brite drew a walk to bring Quinn to home plate, and a fielder’s choice by Max Janson scored Polen to make it 13-3. Gavin Janson then singled to drive home McCarthy and Janson scored the final Toppers’ run on an error.
Glenwood City’s reprieve, however, was short lived. Elk Mound scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth to bring the game to an end due to the 10-run rule.
Glenwood City finished with just four hits, singles by McCarthy, Brite, Gavin Janson, and Quinn.
Elk Mound had 16 hits with senior Nate Lew collecting four hits and three RBIs. Avery Kaanta, Joe Javanovich, and Christian Hall each had pair for the Mounders.
Max Janson suffered the mound loss after giving up 13 runs on 13 hits and two walks in three innings of work. Kaden Russo started and went three frames for Elk Mound to get the win with a no hit, no walk performance with eight strike outs.