Northeast Nodaway's baseball teams won a pair of conference games at the expense of West Nodaway and North Nodaway and came closer to a second straight conference title. First, they managed to play their game against West Nodaway despite forecasts of rain and used a five-run sixth to win 9-7. They did so despite playing shorthanded, as Andrew Freemyer was in Oklahoma showing sheep at the national level. Andrew Faustlin got the win for Northeast and the Bluejays pulled together in his absence. Faustlin helped himself out by hitting two home runs.
Against North Nodaway in Hopkins, the Bluejays won 10-6, playing a much different team than the one they run-ruled in Ravenwood. The Bluejays jumped out to an early 8-1 lead after their half of the third, but then struggled against the pitching of Peyton Coleman, who had one of the best curveballs that the Bluejays had faced all year. Northeast took seven called third strikes during the afternoon, an area of concern for Coach Vance Proffitt.
Northeast broke up a 1-1 tie in the second with five runs as Faustlin's double with two on capped the rally and was the highlight. Max Giesken's Texas Leaguer started the rally as the wind, blowing across and in from right to left, knocked down his pop fly in left field before the left fielder could get to it to score Korey Adwell. Garet Jackson walked in Dalton Auffert and Dylan Mildfeldt scored after a wild pickoff throw left the playing area.
Rowdy West got the hit of the day for Northeast, a double over rightfielder Ty Cowan's head despite hitting into the wind; it might have cleared the fence at Northeast Nodaway. However, since North Nodaway does not have a fence, the only way to get a home run is to hit it 400 feet into the creek or get an inside the park homer, as Andrew Faustlin did last year when he hit one clear to the scoreboard. It was enough to score Dylan Mildfeldt and Max Giesken to put Northeast up 8-1.
But Andrew Freemyer, who started pitching for the Bluejays, fought the strike zone during warmups and delivered a four-pitch walk to start the game. He settled down in the second, but fought the strike zone again in the third as a single from Ben Hart and a ton of walks led to two runs. But Max Giesken came on in relief and struck out Colt McCoy with the bases loaded to keep the margin at 8-3.
Garet Jackson, pitching for the first time all year, gave up a single to Dakota Smyser that plated Coleman and cut Northeast's lead to 8-4. Proffitt, who considers every game against his former school a rivalry game, started getting agitated after a called third strike by Andrew Freemyer and a popup from Austin Jones with runners on second and third and one out killed a potential rally. "We were too tentative about swinging at pitches," he said. "We've got to keep those curve ball counts from happening in the first place." But Jackson righted the ship by striking out the side in the fifth and Andrew Freemyer made a catch at second to strand August Hoepker at second in the sixth.
Northeast finally got some badly needed insurance runs in the seventh as Freemyer's double scored Garet Jackson and Rowdy West to make it 10-4. But Freemyer wandered off second too far and was out in a rundown for the last out of the inning; this is something that Proffitt says has to be cleaned up before districts.
But the insurance runs were important as Garet Jackson tired and began fighting the strike zone in the seventh; two walks and an error loaded the bases with nobody out. But Freemyer redeemed himself and made a great catch at second of a line drive that could have been extra bases and Kendrick Calfee struck out. Jackson got into some more trouble as he hit Cowan to force in a run and a pickoff throw turned into a steal of home for Dakota Smyser to make it 10-6. But Jackson struck out Hoepker looking to end the threat.
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