Clear Lake doubles up St. Edmond
While Clear Lake might not be the typical power of the past in baseball this summer, it remains a program opponents cannot give extra outs to and expect to win.
St. Edmond held a 4-2 lead against the Lions here Wednesday night at Rogers Park before allowing six runs in the sixth and falling 8-4.
Clear Lake (13-12 overall, 7-3 in the North Central Conference) remained in the thick of things for the league title after entering the night a game back of Humboldt and two behind Webster City. The Lions had just six hits, but drew eight walks and had three others get hit by a pitch.
“Outside of that one inning, I felt like we won the other six,” SEHS head coach Mike Szalat said. “We had two really good games over the past week outside of a bad inning. My high school coach always told us to win games, you have to avoid giving up a bad inning.”
Noah Carlson and Jack McEvoy each had two hits, with Cael Kolacia scoring twice and stealing a base. Nick Bennett, Jackson Kochendorfer and Peyton Scott all drove in a run.
Scott came on for almost three innings in relief, allowing just one hit and one run with three strikeouts. Grant Heldorfer recorded the final five outs without allowing a hit.
“We had to limit our pitch counts, so we had to take guys out at different times,” Szalat said. “But I thought everybody did a good job out on the mound. And we had some kids playing different positions and I felt like the defense had a good night.”
For the Lions, Austin Warnke drove in two runs and AJ Stevenson had a pair of hits. Clear Lake did not have an extra-base hit against Kochendorfer, Scott, Connor Bocken or Heldorfer.
St. Edmond returns to action Friday when they host Humboldt back here at 7:30 p.m.
CLEAR LAKE 8, ST. EDMOND 4
Clear Lake 101 006 0 — 8 6 4
St. Edmond 102 010 0 — 4 8 2
WP–Erik McHenry (1-0, 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 6 K, 2 BB). LP–Connor Bocken (0-3, ª IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 0 K, 2 BB).
2B–SE: Noah Carlson. RBI–CL: Erik McHenry, Austin Warnke, Chase Stuver, Carson Krefft, Mac Adams; SE: Nick Bennett, Jackson Kochendorfer, Peyton Scott.