Oskaloosa spoils Cards’ Senior Night, final game at Eversman

The final game at Eversman Field was supposed to have a better result.

On a night when eight seniors were recognized before the game, the Newton baseball team was hoping to celebrate a Little Hawkeye Conference win.

Oskaloosa, though, had a different idea.

The Indians spoiled the Cardinals’ Senior Night and the final game at Eversman Field when they scored four runs in the top of the seventh and downed Newton 5-3 on Monday.

“You have to take every opportunity that you are given. We had our opportunities to put the game away,” Newton head baseball coach Derek Wrage said.

The Cardinals dropped to 5-6 in games decided by three runs or fewer. They led Oskaloosa 3-1 after six innings and out-hit the Indians 9-6 but were plagued by three errors.

Oskaloosa was given four other free passes, too. Two of those walks came in the Indians’ four-run seventh. Newton committed two errors in that frame as well.

“We had a couple of ground balls that we booted and a fly ball over here where the kid took off,” Wrage said. “We have to capitalize on those, but if we don’t we can’t let it affect us.”

The Indians plated their first run in the second, but Newton answered with a three-run third.

In the third, the Cardinals (10-15 overall, 6-12 in the LHC) sent eight batters to the plate. With one out, Kacey Sommars doubled and then scored on Eli Stewart’s RBI single.

A bloop single by Drew Thompson gave Newton three straight hits and Brody Bauer’s RBI sacrifice fly to right field made it 2-1.

After Finn Martin walked, Riley Mouchka drove in Thompson with a two-out RBI single.

Stewart finished with three hits, one run and one RBI in the loss and Martin singled and walked twice.

“They’ve been guys who come to work every day and do what we ask them to do,” Wrage said about Stewart and Martin. “They’ve had their struggles this year, but they continue to work hard and make the adjustments to get better. It’s nice to see the hard work being rewarded right now.”

Stewart produced a one-out single in the first but was stranded. Martin singled in the second but was retired on a fielder’s choice by Tade Vanderlaan, who was stranded on first.

Skyler Milheiser reached on an infield single in the fourth. The inning ended one batter later though after a hard line drive by Sommars resulted in a double play.

Stewart led off the fifth with a single and Martin singled with two outs, but both runners were stranded after Oskaloosa starting pitcher Logan Hoskinson got out of the jam with a strikeout.

The Cardinals went down in order in the sixth and only got a Thompson infield single in the seventh. Trailing by two in their final at-bat, Newton’s top of the order was retired twice by strikeout.

Bauer was hit by a pitch before he struck out, but the umpire determined he leaned into the pitch. That would have put two runners on base with Martin up next in the order.

“We’ve had a lot of games like today where we boot a couple of balls and we have a couple of calls that we feel didn’t go our way,” Wrage said. “We are not the only ones who deal with it. We can’t let it affect us though. We still have to plug away and do our job as opposed to letting it affect us when we struggle.

“We just have to continue to work on it because if we don’t, come next Friday, the season could be over.”

Sommars started on the mound and nearly went the distance. He was taken out of the game with two outs in the seventh after reaching 108 pitches. He allowed five runs — one earned — on six hits, two walks and two hit batters and he struck out four in 6 2/3 innings.

“We gave too many free bases. He worked around them for the most part though,” Wrage said. “He had all three pitches going, which makes it easier for us. It helps us keep their hitters off balance.

“That’s something we are trying to preach to our younger kids. It’s so much better for everyone if you can have a three-pitch mix.”

Bauer came on in relief in the seventh and struck out the only batter he faced.

Sommars was hitting 82 miles per hour on the radar gun in the sixth. He walked two of the first three batters he faced in the seventh and the fourth Oskaloosa hitter reached on an error.

Throw in a wild pitch and a throwing error, and the Indians rallied with a four-run frame.

With Turner Williams not available due to a back injury and Vanderlaan not available because of pitch count rules, Wrage didn’t have a ton of pitching options as he tries to navigate through a week that also featured a doubleheader on Wednesday and an LHC road game against Indianola on Friday.

“We didn’t have any parameters going into it. We wanted to see how the game went,” Wrage said. “We didn’t know if we would be able to take him out and save him for Friday or let the senior try to finish it on Senior Night.

“We thought Kacey was the guy who could finish the game. We had our chances, but it just didn’t work out.”

Thompson had two hits and one run for Newton. Sommars doubled and scored one run, Mouchka tallied one hit and one RBI, Milheiser registered one hit and Bauer produced an RBI sac fly.

Sommars leads Newton with 21 runs and 29 hits and his six doubles are tied for the team lead.

The Cardinals took the season series from Oskaloosa (9-20, 3-14) after winning twice on the road, 4-1 and 12-4, back on June 9. The Indians’ win in the latest meeting snapped a four-game losing streak.

“The conversation in the huddle becomes a talk about how we’ve dealt with a lot of adversity this year and come playoff time that’s something we can say we have experienced,” Wrage said. “The season hasn’t gone the way we had hoped or expected, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t accomplish everything that we want to. It’s not over as soon as the regular season ends. We can be a tough playoff team, but we have to get better.”

Hoskinson (2-2) needed only 92 pitches to get through all seven innings for Oskaloosa. He earned the pitching win after allowing three earned runs on eight hits and struck out four.

Notes: It was the final home game at Eversman Field as the program moves to their turf field south of the softball field and H.A. Lynn Stadium next season. ... The eight seniors recognized before the game were Sommars, Bauer, Thompson, Vanderlaan, Mouchka, Williams, Jake Ingle and Trevor Klonglan.