Mount
Pulaski Hilltoppers pick up first wins of baseball season
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[April 13, 2017]
Coach Joel Washko’s young Mount Pulaski Baseball Team picked
up their first wins of the season this week and gauging by all the
smiles in the dugout Wednesday evening, the team was feeling pretty
good.
To start off the week’s baseball action, on Tuesday afternoon the
Hilltoppers defeated Cerro Gordo/Bement 13-0.
With sophomore Logan DeRight on the mound, DeRight only allowed
three hits and struck out seven batters in the five inning contest
while earning the Hilltoppers first win of the season.
Mount Pulaski’s bats meanwhile came alive and the Hilltoppers put up
six runs in the bottom of the first inning. The offense continued on
a tear with the Hilltoppers scoring three runs in the second inning,
three more runs in the third inning and finally added another run in
the bottom of the fourth inning. Freshman Brandon Kretzinger was 2-3
with two RBIs and two runs scored for Mount Pulaski.
Sophomore Tanner Farris was brilliant on the mound Wednesday afternoon
for Mt. Pulaski. Farris struck out ten batters and allowed just one
walk in the 11-1 win over South Fork/Edinburg. Farris was also 3-4
at the plate with two RBIs and three runs scored.
Sophomore Ben Fricke was 2-2 with three RBIs and three runs scored.
Another sophomore, Tanner Farris, was 2-4 with an RBI and a run
scored. Joey Davis, Braydin Lanners and Logan DeRight also had hits
as the Hilltoppers offense broke out with nine hits. Coach Washko’s
team was also off and running on the base paths with ten stolen
bases.
Wednesday South Fork/Edinburg
The Hilltoppers returned to Bob Gasaway Field on Wednesday afternoon
to host South Fork/Edinburg. The Hilltoppers came away with an 11-1
win over the Wildcats in six innings.
Tanner Farris took the mound for Mount Pulaski and the sophomore was
outstanding on the bump. Farris threw the complete six inning
contest, allowing just one run on three hits. Farris also struck out
ten batters while giving up just one walk to earn the second win of
the season for Mount Pulaski.
Sophomore Ben Fricke was dynamite behind home plate Wednesday afternoon
for the Hilltoppers and he was also explosive from the batter’s box.
In the last two games, Fricke is 5-for-6 with seven RBI’s and three
runs scored.
The Hilltoppers offense pounded out eleven hits with four guys
having multi-hit performances. Farris helped his own cause at the
plate by going 3-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. Catcher Ben
Fricke was 3-4 with four RBIs. Logan DeRight was 2-4, scored two
runs and knocked in one run. Brandon Kretzinger was 2-3 with a run
scored. John Henry Trauner also had a single for the Hilltoppers.
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The Hilltoppers picked up their first two wins on the
season this week. This is following the 11-1 win over South
Fork/Edinburg on April 12, 2017
Mount Pulaski stole nine bases as a team, with
Braydin Lanners swiping three.
Ben Fricke and Logan DeRight are now tied for the team-leading
batting average. Both are crushing the ball as of late, good for a
.370 average. Senior Eli Olson is batting .333 while Tanner Farris
is hitting .323 and Brandon Kretzinger settles in at .316 for the
Hilltoppers.
Fricke leads the team with eight RBIs and DeRight has five RBIs on
the season.
Head Coach Joel Washko was very happy following the second win
Wednesday evening and he really has not been disappointed at all
with the way his team has been performing this season. “After the
first couple games this season (which were losses to teams from the
Chicago area) we really were playing solid. It’s just that our bats
had not come around yet. A lot of that is we are playing a lot of
young kids. Freshmen and sophomores are out there. Also we weren’t
playing consistently. The weather was raining and we were getting
rained out a lot. Our bats were still cold.
"These last couple games we faced some pitchers that weren’t
necessarily that experienced but it was good to see our kids
swinging the bats well.
"We are starting to do some other things. We are starting to steal
bases and getting bunts down. We just started to play a lot more
solidly offensively. Our defense has been great the last four or
five games. In the last year we’ve really improved in that.
"We are making plays. Our pitchers, our top three guys (Farris,
DeRight and freshman Todd Kelly) have really thrown the ball well.
So we are playing solid baseball for the most part. I think we just
need our bats to come around and the last couple of games I think
they have,” Coach Washko said.
Of the pitching trio of Farris, DeRight and Kelly, Coach Washko
said, “They are freshmen and sophomores so that is encouraging for
us. They are competing. The last two nights the big thing we told
them was, it doesn’t matter who you are playing you can still throw
that first pitch strike and get ahead. They both did a really good
job of that. Logan threw ninety percent strikes yesterday and Tanner
was at seventy-four percent strikes today. So when you do that, when
you get ahead, that makes things really tough on the other team’s
offense. So I think that was a big reason why the last two games
have been kind of lop-sided scores. They really set the tone for
that on the mound."
The Hilltoppers are now 2-7 and will travel to Manito to take on
Midwest Central today at 4:30 p.m.
[Teena Lowery] |