March 29, 2024

Panthers start fast in 12-2 victory

Crawford pitches, drives in three runs

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A nine-run first inning was a strong start to a busy week of Hawkeye 10 action for the Creston baseball team here Tuesday night.

Besides the outcome of this week’s six games making the final determination on Class 3A district seeding, Tuesday was the start of four straight Hawkeye 10 games with the Panthers fighting to climb from seventh place.

Those tasks were boosted by a 12-2 victory in five innings over the Tigers, who fell to 3-12 in league play and 4-13 overall. Creston improved to 8-6 in league play and 9-9 in all games.

The Panthers used three hits, five bases on balls, a hit batter and two Tiger errors to take a 9-0 lead in the bottom of the first, sending 15 batters to the plate against two Red Oak hurlers.

Eighth-grade starter Isaac Bower lasted 2/3 of an inning, charged with all nine runs. Sophomore Will West finished on the mound, yielding three runs, six hits and five walks over 3 1/3 innings.

“We had some good at-bats early that got us going,” Creston coach Steve Birchard said. “We hit the ball OK, and we were obviously helped by some walks and an error here and there.”

Third baseman Chase Shiltz led off the Panther third inning with a triple, and was sent home on a balk charged to West. Kadon Hulett reached on an error and scored on Cody Crawford’s double to make it 11-0.

The Panthers were unable to close out the 11-0 win in the top of the fifth as Crawford, pitching a one-hitter at the time, yielded three consecutive hits in a two-run rally by the Tigers.

But the Panther sophomore pitcher ensured he wouldn’t have to go back to the mound when he hit a line drive single that scored Dustin Merritt for the 10-run mercy rule clincher in the bottom of the fifth. Crawford earlier stroked run-scoring double in a three-RBI night.

“We got a couple balls in the gap tonight for extra bases,” Birchard said. “Cody was pitching great, giving up just the one hit until the fifth. He was throwing strikes, doing what he should do. We probably could have done a little better job keeping the ball in front of us in the outfield on a couple of their hits there in the fifth.”

But there were defensive gems backing Crawford’s effort, as well. Two of them were running outfield catches by Merritt in left and Brody Frain in right. Merritt got his charging in for a shallow drive in the second inning, and Frain’s was a tumbling catch of a shallow pop fly in right in the fifth.

“I thought it was higher, actually, so I was kind of jogging at the beginning,” Frain said. “Then I thought, that’s pretty far away! I just laid out for it. Usually I do all that work and it doesn’t stay in the glove.”

“Brody made one whale of a catch,” Birchard said. “That’s as good as you’ll see. An all-out sprint, all-out dive, and he held it!

“Dustin also had a real nice catch in left,” Birchard added. “He had always been more of an infielder, but saw a chance to play in the outfield this year and made himself pretty decent — all by one thing, being able to get a good jump on stuff. That’s about half of playing in the outfield.”

Tuesday was Little League recognition night, with Jared Moreland winning a drawing to throw out the first pitch, and several others having the chance to run out onto the field with varsity and JV starters for the national anthem.

The JV game was stopped because of rain with Red Oak leading 7-3 in the second inning.

Weather permitting, Creston hosts Kuemper Catholic (11-5 conference and 16-11 overall) today with Shiltz and Hulett on the mound, followed by Atlantic here Thursday with Jaden Driskell the scheduled starter. The Panthers play at Treynor Friday afternoon with JV at 1 p.m. and varsity to follow.

In other action Tuesday night, Kuemper beat Denison-Schleswig 10-4, St. Albert Catholic knocked off Harlan 3-2, Lewis Central beat Atlantic 8-2, Shenandoah nipped Clarinda 5-4, Glenwood got past Thomas Jefferson 4-3 in nine innings and Underwood defeated Shenandoah in a non-conference game, 12-8.

On Monday Kuemper beat St. Albert 12-8, Harlan blasted Atlantic 10-1, Red Oak beat Clarinda 7-3, Glenwood doubled up on Shenandoah 8-4 and Lewis Central blanked Denison-Schleswig 8-0.

A sweep tonight would lift Creston into a fourth-place tie with Glenwood at 10-6. At 14-2, Lewis Central has a three-game lead over Harlan and Kuemper at the top of the conference.

Creston 12, Red Oak 2

R H E

Red Oak 000 02 — 2 4 3

Creston 902 01 — 12 9 0

RO: Isaac Bower 0K 4BB 1HBP, Will West (1) 2K 5BB and Colin Bruce. Cr: Cody Crawford 4K 3BB and Kadon Hulett. W — Crawford. L— Bower. 3B — Cr: Chase Shiltz. 2B — RO: Ryan Lundgren, Bruce; Cr: Crawford. RBI — RO: Bruce 1, Carlos Guerra 1; Cr: Crawford 3, Conner Pals 2, Brenden McDowell 1, Jaden Driskell 1, Brody Frain 1. Multiple hitters — RO: Guerra 2; Cr: Crawford 2, Pals 2.