-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Johnny Dickerson of St. Edmond catches a fly ball against Clear Lake on Friday

For six innings here Friday night at Rogers Park, the St. Edmond baseball team battled Clear Lake to a draw.

However, a difficult inning that saw the Lions take advantage of three Gael errors allowed the visitors to claim a 6-2 victory in the home opener for St. Edmond.

Tyler McDowell went the distance on the mound for the Gaels (1-2 overall, 1-1 in North Central Conference), striking out four while allowing just two hits and two earned run.

John Nemmers had a double and drove in leadoff hitter Hayden Derrig twice, as Derrig had the only other hit off Clear Lake pitcher Andrew Theiss.

“That’s back-to-back nights that we’ve really pushed a pair of good pitchers in Theiss and (Manson Northwest Webster’s Lane Moline),” SEHS head coach Mike Szalat said. “I’m definitely going home feeling very positive about where we are at right now.

“Sure, it would have been great to get one of these two games, but we’re competing and we’re making improvements in all aspects of the game.”

After St. Edmond jumped on Theiss in the first with a walk by Derrig and the double from Nemmers that brought him home, the junior helped his own cause, drawing a walk to start the second.

Clear Lake tied it up on a sacrifice fly by freshman Luke Fuhrman and would go up 2-1 when another ninth-grader, Hudson Carney, plated Alex Kerr in the third.

In the home portion of the third, Derrig recorded a one-out single and stole both second and third before coming home on a ball hit deep to the outfield by Nemmers. Theiss, though, settled down from there, retiring 11 in a row and 12 of the final 13 batters he faced, as only Johnny Dickerson got on when he was hit by a pitch.

“Tyler pitched well enough for the win, we just weren’t able to give him enough support,” Szalat said. “But we had some really nice plays in the field from Johnny and Hayden, and John threw out a runner trying to steal at second.

“We’ve got a little break here before we come back with two big games next week.”

Clear Lake gave Theiss, who struck out 12, a cushion with four runs in the sixth off three Gael errors and two walks.

St. Edmond hosts Southeast Valley on Tuesday in a non-conference affair before taking on Webster City in NCC play on Wednesday.

CLEAR LAKE 6, ST. EDMOND 2

CL 011 004 0 — 6 2 0

SE 101 000 0 — 2 2 4

WP–Andrew Theiss (2-1, 7 IP, 2 H, 12 K, 2 BB). LP–Tyler McDowell (1-2, 7 IP, 2 H, 4 K, 3 BB).

2B–SE: John Nemmers. RBI–CL: Luke Fuhrman, Hudson Carney; SE: John Nemmers (2). SB–CL: Ben Loge; SE: Hayden Derrig (2).