March 28, 2024

PCM starts baseball season with win over South Tama

PRAIRIE CITY — Several different players pitched in to help Prairie City-Monroe baseball take a 7-3 victory in its season-opener over visiting South Tama County on Tuesday.

The Mustangs started off hot, scoring three runs in the first inning after junior Wes Cummings brought two runners in on a single to right field. Junior Olin Meinders also brought in a runner on a sacrifice fly.

South Tama would answer back though, scoring two in the third inning and one in the fourth, evening the score at three heading in to the fifth.

“South Tama is a nice team,” PCM head coach Jeff Lindsay said. “They put the ball in play and made plays when they had to there early to mid-range in the game.”

The Mustangs scored two runs in both the fifth and the sixth innings, pulling away from the Trojans.

Junior Brayton Van Dyke came on in relief of senior starting pitcher Noah Henkenius in the seventh inning, getting the first out off a groundout and striking out the next two batters to finish the game.

“It’s nice to see what the mindset of the team was,” Lindsay said. “Even though we got out to a lead and they came back and tied it, we were able to maintain our focus and have really good plate discipline.”

Henkenius went six solid innings, earning the win while striking out four batters and walking one. He allowed two earned runs on five hits and needed only 78 pitches to get through six innings.

Leading the Mustangs offensively was Cummings, who had two hits, two RBIs and a walk, and sophomore Dane Owens, who had two hits and one RBI. Junior Reed Worth also scored two runs and stole three bases.

Lindsay was pleased with how his team played, mentioning many of his players and giving credit to all aspects of the game.

“I thought we did some really nice things tonight,” Lindsay said. “I thought we did a lot of the smaller things in the field, like hitting cutoffs and communicating. Tonight, that was a really positive thing to see this early on.”

The Mustangs play in a non-conference game against East Marshall at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Le Grand.