Colfax baseball’s season ends with back-to-back losses in Spring Valley
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SPRING VALLEY — In a matter of three days, the Colfax baseball team saw both its regular season and tournament play come to an end in Spring Valley.
[emember_proteced]After dropping the conference and regular season finale to the Cardinals 10-4 last Monday in Spring Valley, the Vikings had the unenviable task of traveling back to Spring Valley just three days later to open the regional competition against the Cardinals.
Unfortunately, the end result proved to be the same for the Vikings’ diamond boys. Fifth-seeded Colfax saw its 2018 season come to an end following a 13-3, five-inning loss to Spring Valley, the four seed, in the Thursday, May 24 WIAA Division 3 regional quarterfinal game.
Colfax finished the season 4-7 overall and was 3-5 in the Dunn-St. Croix.
Regional Game
Colfax had played a great game through the first three innings of its regional opening baseball contest against Spring Valley according to head coach Kirk Secraw.
The Vikings held a 3-2 advantage over the Cardinals after three innings with senior Nate Polden pitching an excellent game with just one hit allowed.
But, as Secraw put it, “the wheels came off” in the fourth inning.
The Vikings committed four fielding errors in that frame which led to five runs and a 7-3 Cardinals’ lead. To make matters worse, Polden was struck by a ball and had to exit the game with two out in the fourth.
“After (Polden) was taken out of the game, we couldn’t throw strikes,” admitted Secraw.
That inability coupled with a couple more errors allowed Spring Valley to plate six runs in its half of the fifth and take a 13-3 win.
“We had a lot of errors, the field conditions were not great,” added Secraw, whose Vikings finished with six fielding errors.
In three and two-thirds innings of work, Polden allowed just two hits and five walks with three strike outs to the 23 batters he faced. Polden was credited with the loss after surrendering seven runs, four of which were earned, the majority, however, came in the error-filled fourth.
Senior Mitchell Kiekhafer and freshman Caden Erickson threw in relief. Of the 13 batters they threw to, the pair allowed six more runs and three hits.
Colfax took a quick 2-0 lead in their opening at bat. Polden reached on an error to open the game. Mitchell Kiekhafer followed with a single. Mitch Harmon and Nick Jenson then delivered back-to-back hits that scored both Polden and Kiekhafer.
Spring Valley added single runs in the first and second to knot the game at two.
But in the third, Mitchell Kiekhafer got his second straight single to lead off the inning. He then stole second and came in to score on Mitch Harmon’s second hit to give the Vikings a 3-2 lead.
It would not last.
Spring Valley collected 11 runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take the win from Colfax.
Mitchell Kiekhafer and Mitch Harmon each had a pair of singles to account for all four of the Vikings’ hits.
Aaron Borgerding picked up the pitching victory for the Cardinals allowing just the four hits and no walks and three runs in his five innings of work. He also had a pair of strike outs and scored two runs for Spring Valley.
Conference Finale
Colfax had plenty of opportunities to score but Spring Valley threw out five Viking runners including two at home plate that allowed the Cardinals to take a 10-4 win the Dunn-St. Croix and regular season finale in Spring Valley last Monday, May 21.
“We had lots of opportunities to score,” stated Colfax skipper Kirk Secraw.”We hit the ball decent and Drew Gibson pitched a good game with five and two-thirds innings but errors from our fielders hurt him.”
Colfax suffered four errors in the game that aided in Spring Valley’s win.
In the Colfax first, Nate Polden led off with a single and scored to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. But it could have been more. Mitchell Kiekhafer, who followed Polden’s at bat with his own single, was a thrown out at third. Then Drew Gibson, who also singled, was tagged out trying for home to end the Vikings’ inning.
Spring Valley scored four runs in the bottom half of the first and added another run in the bottom of the second to lead 5-1.
Colfax would take back a pair of runs in the third when both Mitchell Kiekhafer, who was hit by a pitch, and Mitch Harmon, reached on error, scored to cut the deficit to 5-3.
The Vikings closed to within a single run in the fourth. Chris Scharlau reached base after being hit with a pitch. Two batters later, Nate Polden delivered a one-out double that brought Scharlau around to score.
Unfortunately, Spring Valley, who had been silent since the second, scored five times in the fifth to push its lead to 10-4.
That’s how its stayed as neither team scored in the final two innings.
Colfax finished with eight hits to seven by Spring Valley. Polden was the only Viking with multiple hits going 2-for-3 with the double, an RBI and a run scored. Mitch and Cole Kiekhafer, Caden Erickson, Nick Jenson, Drew Gibson and Mitch Harmon all had singles.
Gibson gave up six hits and six runs and had three strike outs and a walk in a losing effort. Nick Jenson threw a third of an inning giving up four runs on a hit and four walks.
Santana Schlegel got the pitching win for the Cardinals despite firing up three runs, four walks and four hits in three innings of work.[/emember_proteced]