March 29, 2024

Bats come alive in Newton’s second win

A couple of days ago a 5-0 deficit would have meant a loss for Newton High’s baseball team. The Cardinals have a new spark after breaking out of a 12-game losing streak to open the 2017 season.

“This wasn’t our prettiest win, but we’ll take them as they come,” Newton head coach Dustin Brisel said. “I told the guys, just put the ball in play and good things will happen.”

Newton connected for 14 hits to rally for an 11-8 victory at home against BGM’s Bears on Thursday night. A four-run third inning by the Cardinals got them even with the Bears and they took the lead for good with two runs in the fourth frame.

It was the second victory in a row for Newton. The Cardinals are 2-12 on the season.

“By putting the ball in play, we put pressure on the defense,” Brisel said. “We’re seeing more confidence at the plate from our guys and they’re taking good swings at the ball and we were able to string together some hits tonight to produce runs.”

BGM scored two runs in the first inning and three more in the second. Newton’s starting pitcher Ben Leal left the mound after those innings. He was charged with five runs on seven hits and on strikeout.

“Ben was throwing strikes. I decided to bring in Ryan Barr to pitch. Ryan did a nice job of keeping the BGM batters off balanced the rest of the game,” Brisel said.

Newton started climbing back into the game in the bottom of the second inning. Barr, Logan Wolfe and Blayden Rhone had singles with Rhone driving in Barr for the run.

The Cardinals took advantage of eight Bear errors in the game. Four of those miscues came in the third when the Cardinals plated four runs to tie the game at 5-all. Leal had an RBI single in the frame.

Down 6-5, Tyler Stanton led off the fourth with a base hit for Newton. With one gone, Trey Vanderlaan drove in Stanton with a base hit then wen to second on a passed ball. Barr, who was 4-for-4 in the game, connected for an RBI single.

Newton scored two runs in the fifth on a BGM error. Barr opened the sixth with a double and Leal reached on an error. Wolfe’s single chased home Jaron Roush, who was running for Barr, and Leal scored on an error.

BGM picked up single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings.

“We played cleaner ball defensively after the third inning tonight. The defense made the plays we needed to against BGM,’ Brisel said.

Barr got the pitching victory, going five innings. He allowed three runs on three hits and five walks. He struck out seven. Barr also led the offense with a double and three singles.

Wolfe had three singles for Newton. Brennen Dodd and Rhone, who had three RBIs, each had two base hits. Hitting a single each were Vanderlaan, Leal and Stanton.

Newton closes out the week of action with a Little Hawkeye Conference game at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Norwalk.

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