Caledonia Wins Night Game on Cool 104
In a game under the lights in Rushford, the Caledonia Warriors defeated the GMLOK Bulldogs 4-2.
The game between these two teams had been scheduled earlier this year, but to reschedule, they needed at least one team to be off for the afternoon. GMLOK was off, and since there are lights at the Ben Niggle Sports Complex in Rushford, they traveled to Rushford, where the Caledonia Warriors had an afternoon game with the R-P Trojans. With the rescheduled game originally scheduled to be played in Spring Valley, Caledonia was the road team for two games.
Being the road team just meant that the Warriors could score first. With two outs, Tate Meiners doubled to left and was driven in by Derek Vonderohe for the 1-0 advantage. That was all the damage allowed by Zach Bubany in the first. Bubany struck out the side in the 2nd, then the next offense in the game came in the bottom of the third.
Reid Kruegel got a base hit up the middle, Nolan Skifter reached on a hard grounder to short. With two on, Cody Merkel looked to move them, but he also ran hard down to first for the bunt hit to load the bases. Two batters later, Drew Copley hit a hot shot to third and everyone moved up 90 feet - the score was tied 1-1. Zach Myhre came up right after and hit a long drive to left center. Nolan Skifter came in to score to make it 2-1, and I almost marked in my scorecard Cody Merkel was going to score, but a good cutoff throw got Merkel out at the plate. A batter later the inning was over and the score was still 2-1.
Payton Schott led off the top of the 4th with a base hit and three batters later was driven in on an Austin Werner double to tie the game 2-2. The leadoff man in the 5th, Alex Goergen, walked on four pitches, then came in to touch home on a Payton Schott groundout to get the lead back at 3-2. Leading off the 6th inning, Mason Staggemeyer singled, was sacrificed to 2nd, and came in to score to make it a 4-2 Caledonia advantage.
During all this, Austin Werner was on the mound dealing. After his team tied the game, then got the lead back, the Caledonia southpaw sent the Bulldogs down in order in 3 straight innings, striking out 2 in each of those frames. He did not allow any more runs and the Warriors took the win, 4-2.
KVGO Co-Players of the Game for GMLOK were Reid Kruegel (2 hits, scored the first GMLOK run) and pitcher Zach Bubany (7 IP, 3 ER, 4 K, limited the damage by stranding 8 Caledonia baserunners; he also hustled while fielding his position.
KVGO Player of the Game for Caledonia was Austin Werner. In 7 innings pitched, Werner gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, and shut the GMLOK offense down after the 3rd, striking out 9 in the game.
Tune in Friday for more high school sports! We'll have Chatfield vs. GMLOK softball on KVGO 4:50 pregame 5:00 first pitch! Hope you join us then!