Camden Griffith and Alex Young powered Gilman City’s baseball team to its fourth win, a 14-4 triumph, and made the long bus ride home worthwhile. Both had two hits and Young drove in four runs and Griffith three more.
When the Hawks were scrambling to find games with two weeks notice, they had to take what they could get. Green City had been a perennial powerhouse for many years, but the Gophers have fallen on hard times this year and have not won a game this year after having gone 17-8 the year before. They came into the game with 12 players, eight of which are freshmen and sophomores.
Parker Holcomb started off the game with a single and Mason Preston walked. They pulled off a successful double steal of second and third, and Camden Griffith flied out to make it 1-0. Alex Young walked and then Mason Preston scored on a balk to make it 2-0 as Young took second. Jace Estrada walked and Dustin Ward walked as well. Carter Robertson reached on an error as Alex Young scored to make it 3-0. Estrada took third and Ward second. Andrew Young walked to force in a run. Dakota Meringa walked to force in another run. Mason Preston singled to make it 6-0. Camden Griffith singled to make it 7-0. Alex Young singled to make it 9-0 before Green City could finally get out of the inning.
An error let in a Gopher run in the bottom of the first, but the Hawks had an unusual double play to get out of the inning. With runners on first and second, Carter Robertson handled a ground ball at second base, threw to third, and the Hawks threw back to second to get out of the inning.
Carter Robertson singled to start the Hawk second. Andrew Young grounded out to move him to second, and Dakota Meringa doubled to right field to score Robertson to make it 10-1. Parker Holcomb drew a nine-pitch walk, fouling off four pitches in the process. Mason Preston popped out, but Camden Griffith doubled to left to score Meringa to make it 11-1 as Holcomb took third. Alex Young singled to left to score Griffith and Holcomb. Jace Estrada doubled to score Young to make it 14-1.
The Hawks are at 4-0, but their Achilles heel this year has been struggling to finish off games. They were seemingly in control at King City before the Wildkats put together a frantic rally to make it interesting. And the Gophers put together a frantic rally in the bottom of the fifth to plate three runs before the Hawks finally got out of the inning and went home early.
In the Gopher third, they got traffic on the bases with two outs, only for catcher Mason Preston to pick a runner off second to end the inning. Preston threw a runner out stealing in the fourth inning to erase an error. Preston got his second pickoff of the day, this time as a pitcher, in the fifth inning to help preserve the ten run margin.
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