L-S baseball jumps on C-M early, rolls to SICL win

COLFAX — Lynnville-Sully's baseball team got a complete effort against Coflax-Mingo on Monday night. And took advantage of several miscues by the Tigerhawk defense.

It all added up to an 8-1 road win for the Hawks during South Iowa Cedar League action.

Blaize Kuhlmann and Conner Maston combined on a two-hitter and Bray Noun Harder had four hits and four RBIs at the plate as the Hawks snapped a four-game losing skid against Colfax-Mingo.

"I felt really good about the way we played today," said L-S coach Scott Alberts, who defeated Colfax-Mingo for the first time since taking over the head coaching role. "We had not shown up and pitched a complete game like this all season."

The Tigerhawks committed eight errors and walked 10 batters in the loss. Lynnville-Sully plated three runs in the second and four more in the third before cruising to the victory.

"I don't know what to chalk this one up to," Colfax-Mingo coach Brian Warrick said. "We lost 2-1 to the best team in the conference on Friday. A few nights before, HLV beat (L-S) 12-2. All high school ball players are on Varsity Bound. They see it. They were talking about that right away tonight. I think we got it in our head that the game was ours before it started. We didn't put out the right effort."

The Hawks (5-5 overall, 4-2 in conference play) pounced on C-M ace pitcher Trystin Ross early. But Ross didn't get much help from his defense either. Simple ground balls were not handled and balls got past players in the outfield.

Ross came into the game 3-0 with an earned run average of .38. Seven of the eight Hawk runs were charged to Ross and he walked four batters. He also allowed five hits and was the losing pitcher.

Tigerhawk pitchers walked 10 in the game. The Hawks were selective in what pitches they swung at, and that led to batting around in the second and third innings.

"I thought we did a good job of managing the zone and attacking the pitches that were in our zone," Alberts said. "We knew what we were looking for, and if it wasn't there, we let it go."

Ross got out of a bases-loaded situation in the first inning by striking out the final two batters of the frame. He wasn't so fortunate in the second inning as L-S scored three runs and sent nine batters to the plate.

The Hawks were helped out by a Tigerhawk error. Noun Harder's RBI single made it 3-0. Noun Harder was 4-for-5 with two doubles, four RBIs and a run scored.

"When you're on, you're on. Baseball kind of works that way," Noun Harder said. "The guys in front of me were able to get on, too, so that helped. I can't get the RBIs without guys on base."

Kuhlmann, who started on the mound for the Hawks, helped himself with an RBI infield single in the second, too. He finished with one hit, two walks, two steals, two runs scored and an RBI.

In third, L-S sent 10 batters to the dish. Two more Tigerhawk errors helped the cause, but Noun Harder's two-run double extended the lead to 6-0. Noun Harder scored on a C-M error.

"Bray had a big day. He was seeing the ball well," Alberts said. "Anytime we can get guys on and keep advancing them, that's good. He had an opportunity to drive guys in and did a nice job with that."

Colfax-Mingo settled down a bit after that. L-S did not score again until the seventh inning. Kuhlmann walked to open the frame. Corder Noun Harder followed with a single and Bray Noun Harder got another RBI with a single.

That was against Hunter Green, who pitched 2 2/3 innings for C-M, allowing one earned run on two hits with three walks. Cael Bracewell relieved Green in the seventh and got all three outs, including a pair of strikeouts.

Brady Berkey relieved Ross (3-1) in the third inning. He tossed 1 2/3 innings and allowed no runs on no hits with three walks and two strikeouts.

Warrick made sure to keep the pitching counts down for both Ross and Berkey so he can use them later in the week.

"Trystin has been doing this forever. He's upset. But he'll be ready the next time he pitches," Warrick said. "He got a lot of ground balls. But our defense didn't help him out."

Colfax-Mingo (4-6, 4-4) scored its only run in the fourth inning. Cole Bracewell and Wyatt Gull drew back-to-back walks with two outs. Cael Bracewell then sliced a single to a hole in left field to drive in his brother.

The only other hit in the game came from Ross, whose bloop single in the first found a hole between three Hawks in shallow left-center field. Ross also walked in the sixth inning and Nate Jones and Cole Bracewell walked twice in the loss.

"It was a big win for us. This is a rivalry game and the games have been tight the past few years. It was good to come out on top this time," said Bray Noun Harder, who last helped the Hawks defeat Colfax-Mingo on June 19, 2017. "The team played great. The pitching was great and I was proud of how everyone performed in the field, too."

Kuhlmann (2-1) got the win for the Hawks after allowing one earned run on two hits with four walks and five strikeouts in four innings. Maston tossed the final three innings and surrendered no runs on no hits with two walks and one strikeout.

Corder Noun Harder had two hits and two steals for the Hawk offense. Maston, Slater Young and Owen Norrish all had two walks. Blake Rea also scored two runs.

Payton Van Wyk had one hit, one run and one walk in the first two innings before being ejected after a collision at the plate forced C-M catcher Zach Steenhoek to leave the game due to concussion-like symptoms.

Steenhoek came into the game hitting .474 but had just one at-bat in the game due to the injury.