Late rally ties game but IMS loses in 10th

By Doug Brenneman, JOURNAL Sports

KALONA -- The Southeast Iowa Super Conference high school baseball game between Cardinal and Iowa Mennonite Wednesday did not start on time and definitely did not end on time.

The Cardinal team was delayed getting to the game after getting stuck in traffic behind many tractors.

The IMS team did not want to lose and rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 5-5 before giving up eight runs in the 10th inning to lose 13-5.

?It was a good game,? Cardinal coach Rick Scott said. ?It was a great game. It may have been fun to watch, but it wasn?t fun to coach. When I saw this game on the schedule it really worried me.?

?We had to throw some inexperienced guys out on the mound at the end and it was baptism by fire,? IMS head coach Danny Hershberger said. ?With our schedule, we need a lot of guys to be able to step up and pitch for us.?

Isaiah Swantz started on the mound for IMS and went seven innings. He didn?t allow a hit until the fourth inning and that runner was erased by catcher Blake Bontrager?s throw for a caught stealing. Swantz walked four straight batters in the second inning but his pickoff move got an out at second and Bontrager threw out another stealing. He gave up a three-run homerun in the fifth inning but excellent defense prevented another run from scoring when third baseman Eli Ours took a throw from the outfield on a hit and gunned the runner down at home plate.

?Let me tell you about that homerun because that kid has not hit for two games or more,? Scott said of Mason Aschenbrenner. ?I was ready to take him to the woodshed if he didn?t start hitting. He came out of it today and that?s just the way baseball is.?

?Isaiah did a good job of keeping us in the game and keeping them off balance,? Hershberger said. ?When he got in trouble a little bit, he was able to get out of it. Our defense made a couple of great plays. It was Isaiah?s first start of the year and he really battled.?

IMS took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Drew Blauvelt drew a bases-loaded walk.

IMS scored its second run in the sixth inning when Eli Ours singled, advanced on London Schrock?s single and scored on Trevor Leyden?s single.

Trailing 5-2 with two outs in the seventh, Ours singled and Schrock reached on an error. Reggie Borntrager doubled in a run for a 5-3 deficit.

?We just want to take it one page at a time so we can concentrate on having a good at-bat,? Hershberger said. ?We were able to do that. The guys were focused. They hit some good balls and got us back in the game.?

Leyden singled to score two runs and knot the game at 5-5.

?The guys always believe that they can come back,? Hershberger said. ?That gives us a good chance. Unfortunately we were unable to complete it. I thought they did a good job.?

IMS loaded the bases in the eighth inning but didn?t score. They went down in order in the ninth and 10th innings.

?We need to do a better job of scoring runners,? Hershberger said. ?We had two or three guys left on base almost every inning. We need to find a way to get that big two-out hit with guys on. Hopefully find a way to score those guys and we will be all right.?

IMS went through three pitchers in the final inning. Between them, they issued six walks. IMS received 10 walks in the game and issued 15.

?With the pitch count the way it is for everybody, it limits what you can do,? Scott said.

It must have been one of the closest eight-run games there ever was.

?They got up, we got up, they tied it. That?s what I expect out of Iowa Mennonite,? Scott said. ?They keep coming back. I felt like we came out a little bit flat. I thought our team showed confidence by just staying with it and getting the lead. Their last pitcher was struggling to throw strikes and we were able to take advantage of that. It was a good win for us but I?ve been on the other side of that loss. It?s tough.

?It?s wear and tear and it?s a grind right now, but it?s baseball, so it?s fun.?