Toppers escape with an 8-5 Conference win over Midwest Central

[April 17, 2015]  MOUNT PULASKI - Catcher Beau Collier smiles as his pitcher, Michael Lowery, admits to having "no control" in the Toppers 8-5 Tomahawk Conference win over Midwest Central. Lowery (3-2) tossed the complete game with only five strikeouts and issued five walks, while being responsible for all five earned runs. Not a good outing for the right-hander but good enough for a win, thanks to the Toppers offense which included 13 hits.

Blake Collier led off the game with a double, something he's been accustomed to doing lately. Brett Huff followed with a single and after a strikeout by Lowery at the plate, Beau Collier walked to load the bases in the first inning. Matt Amidon then came to the plate and narrowly missed a grand slam but his monster double scored two runs and gave the Toppers a 2-0 lead.

The Toppers added a run in the fourth inning as Brayden Curry singled and stole a base and came around to score on a base hit by Eli Griesheim.

Midwest Central finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning with a run to make the score 3-1. That score remained until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Raiders struck for another run off Lowery.
 

As the Toppers headed to the seventh inning with a slim 3-2 lead, Lowery led off with his second double of the game and he came around to score on the base hit by Curry. Aaron Durchholz and Griesheim also added RBI singles in the inning. Before it was all said and done, Blake Collier stepped to the plate again and smacked his fourth hit of the game, a sharp line drive to right field that scored two more runs for Mount Pulaski. The Toppers had put together a five run seventh inning and now led the game 8-2.

The bottom of the seventh would see Lowery and company get in a jam as a walk, an error and three hits by the Raiders resulted in three runs and the bases were loaded with only one out.

As the go ahead run stepped in the batters box, the Tomahawk Conference win was still up for grabs. But on this afternoon Lowery would get a pitcher's best friend, a double play, to end the game. Appropriately the batter hit the ball right back at Lowery and he fired to his best friend standing on home plate who fired to first baseman Griesheim for the 1-2-3 game-saving double play.

A close one for the Toppers at the end, but still a nice 8-5 team victory.

Blake Collier was 4-5 with an RBI and he lifted his batting average to .447 on the season. Lowery and Curry were both 2-4 at the plate and improved their batting averages to .478 and .311 respectively. Huff was 1 for 5 and his batting average holds steady at .429 for the Toppers. Meanwhile Amidon was 1 for 2 with 2 RBIs and improves his average to .342 with a team-leading 16 stolen bases on the season. Finally senior Aaron Durchholz, a first-year varsity player, is batting .333 and catcher Beau Collier, who threw out another baserunner in Thursday night's contest, is batting .340 on the year.

Several of the Toppers have made the Max Preps list for Illinois Class 1A leaders in boys baseball this spring.

Mount Pulaski's record sits at 9 wins and 6 losses as they head to Decatur LSA tonight for a 4 pm game. Brett Huff will take the mound for the Toppers in that contest.

[Teena Lowery]