March 28, 2024

Indians hand Cardinal boys first LHC loss

Four errors defensively and stranding 12 base runners is not the formula for winning baseball games. Newton High’s Cardinals stress making routine plays, but it was visiting Oskaloosa’s Indians who made the plays more often than the Cardinals Friday night.

The Indians handed the Cardinals their first loss in Little Hawkeye Conference play. Oskaloosa claimed a 5-1 win over Newton at Eversman Field in Woodland Park.

“We hit the ball. but didn’t get the hit at the critical time to drive in runs. We stranded runners on base,” said Dustin Brisel, Newton head coach. “They (Oskaloosa) played better at our game — making routine plays — than we did tonight.”

Newton’s team honored NHS alumnus Aaron Henning, who died from injuries sustained in a house fire at the end of May. Henning’s sons Jordan and Logan threw out first pitches in pre-game ceremonies, and the Cardinals’ batting helmets have a AH sticker on them.

Jordan Travis threw a complete game for the Cardinals in a losing effort. He racked up 11 strikeouts, but allowed seven hits and walked two.

Indians’ starter Colton Swanson went five shutout innings for the win. He allowed four hits, walked four and struck out three Cardinal batters. Bennett Spry issued two walks pitching for Oskaloosa and T.J Boyle worked two innings and was charged with one run on three hits and one walk. Boyle struck out two.

“Jordan threw a great game. We have to clean up some things and move on,” Brisel said. “We still have a lot of baseball to play. We have some big games coming up this next week.”

The Cardinals had two on and two out in the second and didn’t score. In the sixth, trailing 4-0, Newton had the bases loaded with one out and came up empty. In the seventh, Newton had three hits in the inning and scored just one run.

A throwing error with two gone in the third allowed Oskaloosa to score a run. The Indians scored on back-to-back singles with two outs in the fourth. Two errors led to two runs in the fifth for Oskaloosa for a 4-0 lead. Another error and a balk by Travis produced a run in the top for the seventh — with two gone.

Newton drew seven walks and had seven hits in the game. Three hits came in the seventh when Connor Gholson and Tyler Wood had singles, then Duncan Lee had an RBI base hit. Lee had a double earlier in the game.

Other hits for the Cardinals were singles by Drew Stout, Tristan Peters and Derek Damman.

Newton is 4-1 in LHC play and 7-3 overall. Newton plays a conference doubleheader Monday at Pella. The doubleheader starts at 5:30 p.m.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com