Adrian senior Joe Kruger drills a pitch for a grand-slam homer during Thursday’s Red Rock Conference baseball game against Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin in Adrian. Kruger drove in five runs in the contest, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Dragons from dropping a 9-8 decision in eight innings.By John RittenhouseThe Adrian baseball team went 2-1 while playing three games since last Thursday,Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin nipped the Dragons by one run in Adrian Thursday. Adrian responded to the setback by posting a seven-run win in Windom Monday before rolling to a 15-run victory over Southwest United in Heron Lake Tuesday.Adrian, 8-2 overall, hosts Red Rock Central-Westbrook-Walnut Grove today before playing in Luverne Tuesday.Adrian 15, SWU 0Tyler Wolf tossed a complete game shutout to carry the Dragons to a Red Rock Conference win over Southwest United in Heron Lake Tuesday.Wolf blanked the hosts in a game that was limited to five innings due to the 10-run rule. He allowed five hits and one walk while recording two strikeouts.The Dragons gave Wolf plenty of offensive support by scoring runs in four of the game’s five innings. AHS put together a five-run first inning and a seven-run fourth frame. The Dragons scored two runs in the second and one in the fifth.Joe Kruger was three-for-three at the plate with two doubles and four RBIs.Levi Bullerman and Pete Hohn both went three-for-four, and Wolf added two hits.Adrian 15, Windom 8The Dragons snapped a two-game losing skid when they prevailed by seven runs in Windom Monday.Adrian opened a 10-0 lead in three innings and never lost control of the game the rest of the way.Dusty Spieker led the Dragons in the slugfest by rapping three hits. Brandon Wolf, Levi Bullerman and Joe Kruger drove in a combined nine runs with two hits each. Brandon Schettler added two safeties.Adrian took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first with a sacrifice fly from Pete Hohn and a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Spieker, and the score was 4-0 when Bullerman doubled home a run. Dusty Henning received an RBI with a fielder’s choice in the second.A six-run third inning featuring a three-run homer by Wolf, a two-run single by Bullerman and an RBI single by Hohn made it a 10-0 game.Adrian scored single runs in the fourth (Henning recorded a sacrifice fly) and sixth innings (Brandon Diekmann singled home a run) before Kruger capped the AHS scoring with a two-run single in the seventh.David Hoffer, making his first varsity start as a pitcher, tossed four innings of three-run, six-hit ball to pick up the win. Brandon and Tyler Wolf pitched the final three frames.ML-B-O 9, Adrian 8The Wolverines took over first place in the RRC when they nipped the Dragons by one run in eight innings during Thursday’s tilt in Adrian.The battle of RRC unbeatens was settled in the eighth inning, when ML-B-O’s Mitchell Schroeder tripled home a run in the top of the eighth to make it 9-8. When Adrian was blanked in the bottom of the frame, the game was complete.Both teams sported leads during the course of the game.ML-B-O scored twice in the top of the first before the Dragons tied the tilt with an RBI single from Hohn and a fielder’s choice by Kruger that produced a run.The Wolverines moved in front 5-2 in the top of the third, but Kruger capped a five-RBI performance with a grand-slam homer in bottom of the third to give the Dragons their first lead at 6-5.The teams exchanged runs in the fourth inning (Adrian’s came after Bullerman produced a sacrifice fly), and ML-B-O moved in front 8-7 with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth.Kruger singled and scored on a fielder’s choice by Tyler Wolf in the bottom of the seventh, but the Wolverines settled the issue in the eighth.Wolf surrendered five hits and five runs in the first two innings as Adrian’s starting pitcher. Hohn took over in the third and was saddled with the loss after being touched for four runs and two hits in six innings. Hohn, who had two hits along with Kruger, fanned nine batters on the mound.
