PRAIRIE CITY — Things were humming along for PCM’s Mustang baseball team at home June 13. Then they hit a speed bump called the seventh inning.
Leading 2-0 on single runs in the first and sixth innings, the Mustangs saw their lead dissipate in the top of the seventh frame. Visiting Roland-Story’s Norsemen manufactured five runs to go ahead, 5-2.
“It would have been easy for our kids to just fold up after losing the lead, but I give our kids credit. They battled to get it tied,” PCM head coach Jeff Lindsay said after the Mustangs dropped a 7-5 heartbreaker in nine innings.
“Derek Brown had a great at-bat with two outs in the seventh. He worked a walk then we had three hits to score the three runs we needed to keep playing.”
Following Brown’s base-on-balls, Reed Worth doubled in a run and scored when Preston Van Wyk tripled. Noah Henkenius drove in the tying run with a base hit.
The teams played a scoreless eighth inning. Roland-Story tallied two runs in the ninth and held the Mustangs to claim the Heart of Iowa Conference win.
“It was a great ballgame with both teams playing well. It was a tough one to lose, but we played well,” Lindsay said. “We had the pitching set up the way we wanted. Roland-Story just hit the ball better late in the game.”
Henkenius started on the mound for the Mustangs, working five scoreless innings. He allowed four hits, walked three, hit one batter and struck out three. Van Wyk worked a scoreless sixth inning, walking one, hitting a batter and striking out one.
Brayton Van Dyke came in as the Mustang closer, but the Norsemen found a way to plate the five runs in the seventh. Van Dyke pitched two-thirds of an inning, charged with five runs — three earned — on two hits, three walks and one hit batter. He struck out two.
Worth came on in relief in the seventh and would take the loss. H went 1 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on one hit and two walks with two strikeouts. Andrew Mitchell was the fifth pitcher for PCM, throwing one inning of relief with one hit and one strikeout.
Van Wyk had a single and a triple in the game and scored two runs for the Mustangs. Worth doubled. Henkenius and Caleb Duinink each had a single for PCM.
Roland-Story (10-6, 4-2) used three pitchers in the game.