Thirty-one straight conference wins for Warrior baseball
By Missy Chappell
The only game Tuscola Warrior baseball was able to play last week saw them face Central Illinois Conference foe Clinton at home last Thursday. The Warriors continued their conference winning streak defeating the Maroons 10-4 on a blustery evening.
Noah Pierce took the bump and pitched well, according to Coach Hoel.
“We thought Noah was pretty sharp, but he wasn’t getting the outside corner call. Throwing into the wind caused his ball to move even more, and it was perhaps moving out of the zone.”
Pierce pitched five innings for the Warriors earning six strikeouts and no earned runs.
Pierce’s teammates got him an early lead, scoring two in the bottom of the first. After drawing a leadoff walk, Dalton Hoel stole second and third to put himself in scoring position when Andrew Erickson hit a single. Erickson then scored on a fielder’s choice hit by Tyler Meinhold ahead of Cade Kresin getting caught in a run down between second and third.
Both teams went down in order in the second inning before Clinton got some offense going in the top of the third. An error allowed their leadoff batter on base. After batting through their line-up Clinton ended their half of the inning up 4-2.
After the game Hoel said that the team had confidence heading into the bottom half of that inning with the top of their line-up back at the plate.
“We were real happy with the way we battled back after giving up four unearned runs in the top of the third. It seemed like the guys knew they were going to score several runs the second time through our order.”
Dalton Hoel led off with a double off the center field fence. He then stole third ahead of Lukas Kresin reaching base on an error. After Erickson advanced Kresin to third on a fielder’s choice, Brayden VonLanken hit a bomb into the Little League diamond behind center to tie the score.
Singles by Meinhold, Cale Sementi and Will Little helped the Warriors end the inning up 7-4.
The full story can be found in the Wednesday, April 11 edition of The Tuscola Journal.