Coming of two wins, at home against Nicollet on Tuesday and in Truman against Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman last Thursday, the Clipper baseball team faces two tough teams: newcomer Madelia on the road tonight (Thursday) and perennial power Mankato Loyola at home tomorrow.
“Those two right now are the biggest games of our season,” head coach Mike Krenik said.
With a road loss to Martin County West a week ago Tuesday, the Clippers are now 3-3.
Cleveland 12, Nicollet 2
The Clippers jumped out to a 2-0 lead against visiting Nicollet in the bottom of the first. Leading off, Carter Dylla got a free pass, stole second and scored when, on a 3-2 count, Colin Krenik drove a hit up the middle. After advancing on a fly out, Krenik scored when Jackson Meyer’s hit found a vacant spot in second field.
“We wanted to get on top of them right away,” Krenik said.
Two more orange-and-black runs came in the second. With two outs, Kale Kelley dropped a hit into center field for a double. Dylla walked again and advanced when Krenik’s grounder found a route between short and third for an RBI. Lucas Walechka’s line drive up the middle scored Dylla and Krenik for a 4-0 Clipper advantage.
Dylla (above), who struck out eight of the nine batters he faced—the other one lined out to Krenik in center field—was replaced on the mound by Meyer in the fourth, and the Clippers gave up one run on three hits.
Dylla said his off-speed stuff did the Raiders a dirty.
“They’re a young team, so if you throw a curveball, they back out…throwing the fastball and mixing up the off-speed, and they couldn’t touch it.”
“I wanted to check out Jackson and see how he could do,” Krenik said. “I told Carter going into it that I wanted to keep him between 30 and 50 pitches, so with one day off, he can come back and pitch Thursday or Friday.”
The Raiders, who fell to the Clippers 15-5 earlier in the season, managed another run in the fifth on a walk, a stolen base and a Clipper infield error, but the Clippers still led 5-2.
The Clippers needed seven runs to walk off with a win in the sixth, and they got them. Dylla and Krenik walked, and Walechka singled on a fly ball to left to score Dylla. Up next, lefty Tanyon Hoheisel tripled on a line drive to center field for two RBIs and scored himself when the ball got by the center fielder.
Meyer followed with a single as did Gabe Sullivan. Ethan Fuller laid down a bunt to score Meyer from third. Kaleb Timlin hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop to reach first on an error. Sullivan scored on a Kelley single, Alex Garcia walked, and, when Brady Bostic ran the count up to 4-1, Timlin strolled home for the win.
The Clippers totaled 11 hits. Back in the lineup on the previous Thursday, Meyer had three singles.
“It was about like I was back to normal,” said Meyer, who spent over sixth months recovering from a football knee injury. “We’re hitting the ball and making plays and having fun.”
Timlin also got back in the lineup after a couple-week hiatus, and coach Krenik was happy to have his team at full strength.
“Now we’ve got some more options to work with: two seniors with lots of experience who come out to the field not wide-eyed.”
Kelley had a single and a double. Krenik and Walechka each had two singles. Hoheisel had a triple. Sullivan had a single.
After Dylla’s perfect three innings, Meyer gave up four this and one walk while striking out two in two innings. Hoheisel took over in the sixth and allowed one hit and struck out one.
Cleveland 2, ML/GHEC/T 1
With the game knotted 1-1 and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, freshman Kale Kelley snuck a line drive beside the third baseman to score classmate Blake Lyons from third. Lyons took first and second on an error by the third baseman and moved to third on a Jackson Meyer groundout.
“They had 12 players, freshmen to seniors, and they are a good, disciplined team,” Krenik said. “We finally got our bats cracking a little bit, and that has been our downfall, being able to square the ball up like we did today against Nicollet and create some confusion.
The Clippers’ other run came in the sixth when Dylla singled, stole second, advanced to third on a Hoheisel single and scored on a passed ball.
The Jaguar’s run came in the first when starting pitcher Colin Krenik hit the lead-off bater. He moved to second and third on ground outs and scored on a passed ball.
But that was the only real mistake Krenik had. He struck out nine and only allowed one hit and no walks in six innings. Dylla pitched the seventh inning and struck out one.
The Clippers had four hits: two singles off Dylla’s bat and Kelley and Hoheisel’s base hits.
MCW 5, Cleveland 3
The stayed in it until the end, but Martin County West pulled away late in a 5-3 victory on Tuesday.
The game was tied at two with the Mavericks batting in the bottom of the fifth when they singled after the first batter walked to score one run. They added two more runs on two hits to pull in front 5-2.
“They are far and away less athletic than we are, but they hit a couple of hits over and made a couple of fast plays, and that was it,” Krenik said. “We just never had that inning to break it all up.”
Cleveland opened up scoring in the first inning when Hoheisel doubled, scoring Krenik, who had singled, stole second and advanced to third on a defensive interference call.
Another Clipper run scored in the fourth. Lyons led off with a walk, stole second, reached third on an error and scored on a Kelley single. Their final run came in the seventh. Krenik singled, stole second, took third on a Walechka single and scored on a Sullivan sacrifice fly.
Walechka toed the rubber. In his five innings, he allowed five runs on nine hits, walked three and struck out six. Dylla threw one inning in relief. He whiffed all three batters he faced. The Clippers had a pair of errors. MCW committed one error.
Each team had nine hits. Hoheisel had a triple and a double. Krenik had two singles. Dylla had a double. Walechka, Garcia, Kelley and Sullivan each had a single. The Clippers left the tying run on base.
“Their pitching was nothing special, but we just didn’t have that one inning to break it all up,” Krenik said.
Tops in the Valley, 3-1 Madelia beat Loyola 6-3 but lost to ML/GHEC/T.
Jackson Meyer, in his first full game back, swung the bat for three hits against Nicollet.
Second baseman Kale Kelley gloves the ball on a Nicollet steal.
Lucas Walechka had two singles against Nicollet.