sports

CROOKSTON PIRATE BASEBALL SPLITS TWO GAMES AT JIM KARN FIELD FRIDAY EVENING

May 13, 2022

The Crookston Pirate Baseball team split a doubleheader this evening, winning Game 1 against the Kittson County Central Bearcats 10-7, before losing in Game 2 17-12 to the Ada-Borup/West Cougars. Both games were played just as five-inning contests.

CROOKSTON VS KITTSON COUNTY CENTRAL
Kittson County Central (KCC) got things going in the top of the first inning with a leadoff walk to Izyk Strege, who advanced to second base on a balk. Chism Schmiedeberg followed with a single and runners were at the corners. Schmiedeberg stole second base before Tyler Hennen hit a fly ball to rightfield and Crookston’s Blake Melsa made a tremendous catch while falling backwards. Strege came into score on the play and KCC took a 1-0 lead. Jack Doda retired the next two batter, including a Cade DeLeon diving catch into a large puddle of water in left field for the third out.
Crookston responded in the bottom of the inning with a George Widman bunt single and stole second base. Alex Longoria reached on an error and stole second base and runners were at second and third with nobody out. Ethan Boll popped out centerfield to score Widman to tie the game at 1-1. Brooks Butt followed with a walk, Jackson Demarais was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Longoria scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead. Another run scored on a Cade DeLeon single, and after Austin Trinkle reached on a fielder’s choice and Blake Melsa hit a slow chopper to the left side of the infield and another run scored to give Crookston a 4-1 lead after one inning of play. “It was a great way to start the game and I really liked our approach,” said Pirates Head Coach Scott Butt. “It started with George Widman bunting, and stealing second base and it carried over after that. I really liked the way they started the game.”

In the top half of the second inning, KCC answered in a big way. The first two batters were retired before the Bearcats exploded for five runs. Ethan Hanson reached on a fielder’s choice, Braden Faken singled and stole second base and runners were at second and third base. Strege blasted a line drive to the gap to score two runs. Schmiedeberg tripled to score another run before Tyler Hennen singled to score another run to take a 5-4 lead. The next batter, Frank Finney singled to score Hennen for a 6-4 lead.
Crookston responded in the bottom of the second inning, as Longoria and Ethan Boll walked, and Brooks Butt was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Jackson Demarais singled to score a run. Cade DeLeon followed with a two rbi double. KCC got an out at third and then they threw the ball to second and it sailed into centerfield and DeLeon came around to score on the error for an 8-6 lead after two innings of play. “I’ve never seen a play quite like that before,” said Pirates Head Coach Scott Butt. “Cade did a great job of hustling on that play and the cool thing about baseball is you may see something you’ve never seen before on any given day.”

Crookston held KCC scoreless in the top of the third inning before they added a run in the bottom of the inning. Ashton Larson roped a line drive into left field for a one out single. George Widman walked, Longoria singled and the bases were loaded with one out. Ethan Boll knocked in a run on a fielder’s choice for a 9-6 lead after three innings.

KCC responded with one run in the top of the fourth inning as Hennen had a one-out hit and scored on an Isaac Falland hit to get within a 9-7 defitic.
In the bottom of the inning, Crookston’s DeLeon walked, stole second base, advanced to third base on a wild pitch. With two outs, Blake Melsa singled to score a run to give the Pirates a 10-7 lead. “You have to try and change that score every inning and we were able to do that today,” said Pirates Head Coach Scott Butt. “Otherwise you get into trouble, but even when we got down in the second inning we were able to come back and put up a crooked number.”

In the top of the fifth inning, Crookston’s Jack Doda didn’t give up a hit and struck out the final batter to get the complete game victory. Doda pitched all five innings, while scattering eight hits and striking out five batters. “Jack was overall great today,” said Crookston Head Coach Scott Butt. “He didn’t have his curveball for most of the game but I thought he did a great job locating his fastball and mixing in his changeup and he was effective. I was really happy with how he threw.”

Crookston improves to 3-4 on the year.

	1	2	3	4	5	R	H	E
KCC	1	5	0	1	0	7	8	3
Crookston	4	4	1	1	–	10	7	3

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
Jack Doda – Crox (WP)	5.0	8	7	7	3	5
Frank Finny – KCC	0.2	2	4	3	2	0
Chism Schmiedeberg – KCC (LP)	3.1	5	6	4	5	3

For Crookston –
Cade DeLeon 2 for 2, 3 rbi, 2 runs, BB
Ethan Boll 0 for 1, Sac Fly, 2 rbi, run, BB
Alex Longoria 1 for 2, 2 runs, BB

For KCC –
Tyler Hennen 2 for 2, 2 rbi, 2 runs, Sac Fly
Izyk Strege 1 for 3, 2 rbi, 2 runs, BB
Chisom Schmiedeberg 2 for 4, rbi, run

CROOKSTON VS ADA-BORUP/WEST
Runs were plenty throughout the entire course of the game. Ada-Borup/West wasted no time getting on the scoreboard scoring a whopping seven runs in the top of the first inning. The Cougars first two hitters both drew walks, and after a couple of wild pitches, they had a one-run lead. From there, the walks and wild pitches continued, and after Crookston added a couple of errors mixed in, they found themselves down 7-0 after the top of the first inning. Ada-Borup/West had only two hits in the inning but managed to produce seven runs thanks to their plate discipline.

Crookston came out in the bottom of the inning ready to answer back. George Widman started the inning with an infield single, and after a misplayed ball out in centerfield, the Pirates had second and third with nobody out. Ethan Boll would hit a groundout to bring Widman home, and Brooks Butt would follow it up with an rbi bloop single cutting the deficit to 7-2. After a walk and a strikeout, Austin Trinkle then delivered a two-run double to left-center field, and Blake Melsa followed it up with a rbi double of his own, making it 7-5 Ada-Borup/West after one inning of play.

The Cougars countered back with another monster inning, this time scoring 5 runs. The inning started with back-to-back errors and a wild pitch scoring one run, and after an infield single, there were runners on first and second base with nobody out. Back-to-back hits then plated two more runs, and the Cougars led 10-5. Ada-Borup/West would score two more before a line drive would be hit right at Blake Melsa, and he would dive to the bag at third to double the runner off to end the inning.

A couple of Cougars mistakes and wild pitches allowed two more Crookston runs to score in the bottom of the second, giving Ada-Borup/West a 12-7 lead after two innings of play. The Cougars quickly strengthened their lead once again scoring three runs in the top of the third inning to go up 15-7. Crookston got a 1-out double from Austin Trinkle in the bottom of the third but nothing more and we finally had our first zero on the scoreboard, giving Ada-Borup/West a 15-7 lead with two innings remaining.

The Cougars got a solo shot to lead off the top of the fourth inning, get one more run across thanks to some team baseball, and take a 17-7 lead into the bottom of the fourth. Crookston again found a way to respond in the bottom of the fourth inning, getting a leadoff walk from Alex Longoria, followed by a Cougars error, and then a two-run single from Brooks Butt to make it 17-9. Jackson Demarais would follow that up with a single down the line putting runners on the corners with nobody still out. Cade DeLeon would answer with a single of his own making it 17-10 Ada-Borup/West. The Cougars would get a couple of outs, but the Pirates would get a bloop single to score two more runs before the inning was over, making it 17-12 Ada-Borup/West heading into the final inning of play.

The Cougars would go down quietly in the top of the fifth inning, but Crookston wouldn’t in the bottom of the frame. Ethan Boll would draw a leadoff walk, and after a Cougars error, Jackson Demarais would drill a two-run single to left-center field cutting the lead to 17-14 Cougars. Cade DeLeon would then draw a walk putting runners on first and second base with nobody out and the tying run at the plate. Austin Trinkle would then hit an infield single, and the Cougars would throw the ball away allowing another run to come home and putting the winning run at the plate with runners at first and third base and nobody out. Unfortunately for Crookston, Blake Melsa would rope an absolute laser right at the shortstop who would secure it and double the Pirates runner off of third base for a double play. The next Pirates hitter would also get out and just like that the game was over and Ada-Borup/West had hung on for a 17-15 slugfest win.

Crookston drops to 3-5 on the season.