Cards knock off No. 2 Pella

PELLA — No one will deny it has been a rough season for Newton High’s baseball team. The Cardinals were riding a nine-game losing streak in Little Hawkeye Conference play.

They were on the road Wednesday against conference-leading and Class 3A second-ranked Pella’s Little Dutch. Newton pulled off the upset, defeating the Little Dutch, 5-1.

“What a fun game to be a part of,” Newton head coach Dustin Brisel said. “We trust our defense, and we trust our pitching. It has been the hitting, and tonight, the guys put the ball in play and put pressure on Pella’s defense early.”

Brennen Dodd worked a bases-on-balls from Pella starting pitcher Lucas Hileman to begin the game. Trey Vanderlaan’s sacrifice bunt moved Dodd to second then Drew Stout drew a walk. Connor Gholson and Duncan Lee put the ball in play for Newton and the Little Dutch committed back-to-back errors allowing two Cardinal runs.

Garrett Sturtz took over on the mound, limiting Pella to one run on seven hits and one walk through seven innings. Newton’s defense turned a double play in the second inning.

Pella used two doubles by Grant Judkins and Jaden Rolffs to produce a run in the fourth. Newton led 2-1 heading into the sixth inning.

“We had clutch team hitting tonight and good base running,” Brisel said. “Garrett had Pella’s hitters off balance all night. Brennen and Trevor Ergenbright had great catches in the outfield for us. This is a big win for us because Pella is in our district.”

With one out in the sixth, Newton mounted a three-run push to stretch its lead. Lee singled and Keith Steinbach went in as the courtesy runner for the Cardinal catcher. Tyler Stanton and Ergenbright had base hits to load the bases.

Sturtz delivered an RBI single, driving in Steinbach. Stanton scored on the throw in from center field and Ergenbright ended up at third base. Grant Nook’s fielder’s choice allowed Ergenbright to come home to put Newton up 5-1.

Sturtz worked around a one-out single by Pella in the bottom of the sixth. In the seventh inning, the Little Dutch had two on base and no one out, but Sturtz coaxed Ken Tiskevics to fly out to Dodd in center field and Avery Van Zee to foul out to Lee. A ground ball to Gholson at shortstop by Caleb Piersma resulted in the final out of the game.

Ergenbright and Sturtz each had two singles for Newton. Hitting a single each were Lee, Stanton and Nook.

Newton improved to 3-11 in LHC play with four conference games remaining. The Cardinals (7-16) play a 7:30 p.m. non-conference game Thursday against Des Moines North at Newton’s Eversman Field.

They have a LHC doubleheader Friday at Norwalk.

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