Elk Mound shakes off early deficit to take down rival Mondovi

by Samuel Ripp

MONDOVI – The Elk Mound baseball team was in action on Thursday, May 12 in Mondovi to take on their conference opponent and came home with a 9-3 victory.

On the mound and collecting the win for the Mounders was junior Trey Mohr. Mohr pitched five innings and allowed three runs with only one being earned. Mohr allowed three hits, five walks and struck out six Buffalo batters.

It was sophomore Ethan Kjellberg that came in for two innings of relief pitching in Thursdays win. Ethan only allowed one hit and struck out one in his short time on the mound to help seal the win.

The game went back and forth through the first few innings, until Elk Mound started to pull away. The Mounders grabbed the early one run lead in the first, but Mondovi would answer right back in the bottom half of the inning to tie it up. In the third, it was the Mounders taking the lead back by putting another run on the board. The Buffaloes responded again, and this time they added two to take their first lead of the game and scare Elk Mound for a bit. Elk Mound would tie the game back up in the fifth inning and then take control in the sixth and seventh innings. They added two more runs in the sixth and then put the game out of reach for good in the top of the seventh by pushing across four more runs to get their lead to six.

The Mounders collected only seven hits on the afternoon, but were very patient as they drew nine walks to help move runners into scoring position. Collecting the hits for the Mounders included: senior Alex Hollister, junior Carter Pritchard with two, Ethan Kjellberg with three including a double, and junior Dane Lew.

All nine of their runs came from RBIs on the afternoon and adding to their season total was: Hollister, Pritchard with three, senior Cole Tyman, senior Grant Kjellberg, Ethan Kjellberg, and senior Brandon Bohl with two.

Elk Mound used the steal sign a lot in the game to move runners into a better position to score as they tallied seven stolen bases during the game. Dane Lew, Alex Hollister and Trey Mohr all stole a base and Mohr stole five.

The Mounders still sit a game behind Durand for the top spot in the conference and they will need some help with only a few games remaining. Up next for Elk Mound was a home game against Regis on Saturday, May 14. Then will take on conference opponent Colfax on Monday, May 16 at home.