Adrian third baseman Brandon Wolf latches on to a bouncing ball for the Dragon baseball team. Wolf and the Dragons will host Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin for an important Red Rock Conference game today.
By John Rittenhouse
The Adrian baseball team set up a key showdown in Red Rock Conference play by beating Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster-Southwest Star Concept by four runs in a league game played in Heron Lake Tuesday.
The win upped Adrian's league record to 7-2, which is good for a first-place tie with Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin. The Dragons host ML-B-O today for an important clash.
Adrian also lost a two-run decision in Pipestone Thursday.
Adrian, 8-7 overall, plays at the Windom Tournament before traveling to Hills Tuesday.
Adrian 9,
SV-RL-B-SSC 5
The Dragons scored four early runs and never lost the lead while posting a five-run victory over SV-RL-B-SSC in Heron Lake Tuesday.
The Dragons scored once in the top of the first and three times in the second to take control of the contest early.
Dusty Henning, who led AHS with three hits, walked and scored the first-inning run on a double steal.
Derek Vastenhout singled home a pair of runs and Henning doubled home another in the second.
SV-RL-B-SSC scored once in the third to make it a 4-1 game, but the Dragons scored twice in the fifth and sixth innings before adding a single run in the seventh to put the game away.
Pete Hohn, who rapped a pair of safeties for AHS, doubled home a run and scored on Brandon Wolf's fielderÕs choice to make it a 6-1 game in the fifth.
Colt Bullerman delivered a two-out, two-run double to make it an 8-1 difference in the sixth.
Hohn capped the scoring for AHS with a solo homer in the seventh.
Tyler Wolf pitched the first six and two-thirds innings to notch a victory. He fanned four batters and walked four while allowing five runs.
Hohn entered the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh to earn a save by inducing the only batter he faced to pop out to the AHS shortstop.
P-J 9, Adrian 7
The Dragons came up two runs short when they played a non-conference game in Pipestone Thursday.
Adrian sported 5-0 and 7-4 leads early in the game, but the Arrows scored the game's final five runs (four in the third inning and one in the sixth) to topple the Dragons by two.
Things looked good for Adrian when the team scored four runs in the first inning and one in the second to take a 5-0 advantage.
Joe Kruger, who doubled twice in the contest, chased home three runners with a two-bagger in the first. Colt Bullerman received an RBI for a fielderÕs choice in the same frame.
Tannar Heronimus singled and scored when Dusty Spieker singled to take a five-run lead in the top of the second, but P-J answered with a four-run rally in the bottom half of the inning to trim Adrian's advantage to one run at 5-4.
The Dragons scored twice in the top of the third before being blanked over the final four innings.
Kruger walked and scored on an error in the second. Heronimus added an RBI single in the frame.
Heronimus pitched the first three innings and took the loss. He allowed five hits, two walks and eight runs (six unearned). Bullerman pitched three innings of one-hit, one-run ball in relief.