Newton baseball rallies past 2A No. 2 Des Moines Christian

The non-conference baseball game between Newton and Des Moines Christian on Tuesday had just about everything any fan could think of.

The two teams played through steady rain in the middle innings, ended the game in extremely foggy conditions and the Cardinals rallied from a five-run hole to down the Class 2A No. 2 Lions, 8-7, at home.

Newton also played through a controversial call in the fifth and then got the benefit of a close call at first base in the Lions’ half of the seventh.

“We can beat any team if we string the right people together,” Cade Bauer said. “I think most teams can, but this should give us some extra motivation going into the postseason.”

Bauer broke up Miles Trenkamp’s no-hitter with a lead-off single in the fourth. That started a string of six hits and the Cardinals took advantage of four Lions errors in the frame.

Newton sent 10 batters to the plate and scored seven runs in the inning. That put the Cardinals in front 7-5 and Bauer’s RBI ground out in the sixth was ultimately the game winner.

Bauer leads Newton with 16 RBIs. His RBI in the team’s 3-2 win over Clarke on Monday also came without getting a hit.

“He has productive outs. We cannot be results driven. We have to be process driven,” Newton head baseball coach Derek Wrage said. “If you’re not getting hits, give us productive outs and a chance to score. You’re still doing your job without hitting .350. That’s who he is. He’s a big team guy. He’ll do whatever we ask him to do.”

Des Moines Christian came into the game on a 20-game win streak and scored at least one run in every inning but the seventh.

Gabe Otto got the start on the mound for the Cardinals. He allowed six runs — four earned — on seven hits and three walks and struck out two in 4 1/3 innings.

But Otto kept the damage to a minimum in each inning. Des Moines Christian scored its first two runs with two outs and then plated one of its two runs in the third with two gone.

The Lions’ run in the second was unearned as the Cardinals were plagued by two errors.

“Gabe Otto deserves a lot of credit. It wasn’t maybe his best stuff, but he never let one get out of control,” Wrage said. “They never scored more than two in an inning. He did a really good job competing and gave us a chance on a day when he didn’t have his ‘A’ stuff.”

Otto was in line for the win after the Cardinals scored seven in the fourth. Bauer singled and stole second, Mason Mendez singled and reached second on an error and then Derek Wermager’s RBI infield single was a line drive that hit Trenkamp in the leg.

John Frietsch then reached on an error, Kreytein Wickliffe reached on an infield single and Landry Rausch delivered an RBI single to left field.

That brought Braelyn Parks to the plate and his RBI single the other way drove in another run and an error on the throw back to the infield allowed a second run to score. The ball hit the orange part of the first base bag and rolled away from the Lions player.

The final run came across on Eli Stewart’s RBI sacrifice fly to right field.

Parks has started in 26 games this summer but sometimes plays only in the field. His 57 at-bats rank seventh on the squad.

“I feel like there’s always pressure on me so I have no choice but to do well,” Parks said. “If I don’t get a hit there, I might not play. So I just tried to do my best to come through for the guys.”

Des Moines Christian (29-3) chased Otto in the fifth. Robert Oliver led off the frame with a double and Owen Gilbert’s RBI double made it 7-6.

Creighton Andrew came on to pitch and got the final two outs of the inning despite hitting the first batter he faced and walking the third. He also fanned one and got out of the jam after a pop out to Wermager at first base.

The Lions got one off Andrew in the sixth and tied the game. Andrew hit Ty Andrews to lead off the inning and then Jack Schmalz walked.

That’s when Wrage and the coaching staff went to Parks, who got the first out on a fly ball to center field.

Parks walked two straight to plate one run, but a double play ended the threat. Parks induced a ground ball to Rausch at second for the 4-3 double play.

Parks, who started the game as the designated hitter, came back out in the seventh and got the first two outs before walking Tyler Drefke. But Andrews hit a tapper just in front of the plate and Skyler Milheiser ended the game from there.

It was the first career varsity pitching win for Parks, who improved to 1-1 after allowing no runs, no hits and three walks in two innings.

“My team did their job on the field, and I just had to do my job of throwing it in there,” Parks said. “I knew they’d make plays. The double play was big.

“This is a tough team and it feels good.”

Wrage was proud of Parks’ effort both on the mound and at the plate during the seven-run fourth.

“Braelyn Parks needs to get a ton of kudos,” Wrage said. “He came in and walked two guys to load the bases. It could have been bad, but he got an out and then did his job in the seventh and got a hit over here in the big inning. He’s stuck with us this year and has been asked to do a lot of different things. It’s nice that he got his chance and made the most of it.”

Parks was put in line for the pitching win after the Cardinals (9-20) scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth.

With one out, Milheiser was hit by a pitch. He went to second on a wild pitch and then took third on a passed ball. Stewart followed with a walk and then Bauer’s RBI ground out to second made it 8-7.

“I just wanted to put the ball in play at all costs and don’t strikeout,” Bauer said. “If it’s close, you have to swing. With this fog, anything in the air or on the ground in that spot was probably going to be an RBI. We only needed one.”

Wermager led the offense with one hit, one run, one RBI, one walk and one steal and Parks added one hit, one run, one RBI and one walk.

Bauer tallied one hit, one run, one RBI and one steal, Mendez collected one hit, one run and one walk and Rausch finished with one hit, one run and one RBI.

Stewart walked once and had one RBI and Wickliffe finished with one hit and one run.

“It comes down to making adjustments the second time through the order,” Wrage said. “We started to hit the ball harder. (Wermager) hit that ball right back at the pitcher.

“Kreytein Wickliffe had one of the better at-bats of the night. He didn’t get the bunt down twice, but ended up getting a hit on a defensive swing with two strikes.”

Carson Rounds (5-1) was the third pitcher of the night for the Lions and he took the loss after allowing one earned run on no hits, one walk and one hit batter. He struck out two in 1 1/3 innings.

Des Moines Christian out-hit the Cardinals 7-6 and lost the game despite clubbing five doubles. The Lions committed five errors.

Notes : Two close plays went in favor of each team during the game. In the fifth, Mendez walked and went to second on a wild pitch. Attempting to steal third, Mendez slid past the bag and was eventually called out after the two umpires had a conference. He was called safe originally. Brady Andrews of Des Moines Christian was called out on a close play at first base for the second out in the top of the seventh. “He was safe and then started to cramp up and went to grab his leg,” Wrage said about the Mendez play at third. “The bad thing was they had the call right but they changed it because Des Moines Christian talked them into it. It could have been easy for our guys to just think ‘here we go again’ but they stayed with it. The inning wasn’t over at that point. They continued to compete against a really good team. (Des Moines Christian) will make some noise in the 2A tournament.”

Newton 3, Clarke 2

Another complete game on the mound by Finn Martin lifted the Cardinals to a narrow win over Clarke on Monday.

Newton lost a lead in the fifth but scored the go-ahead run in the sixth and downed the Indians 3-2 during a non-conference contest at home.

The Cardinals won the game despite being out-hit 7-4 and committing three errors.

“Finn is an absolute competitor on the mound,” Wrage said. “(The win) was not pretty. There were frustrating things from that game, but at the end of the day, finding a way to win is what’s most important. They didn’t let things slide out of control, continued to battle and did just enough to scratch one out.”

Stewart led the hosts with two hits, one double, one RBI and one steal. He leads the Cardinals with 22 hits, four doubles and 32 total bases.

Milheiser walked twice, was hit by a pitch, scored one run and stole three bases. He leads Newton with a .429 on-base percentage and 19 steals.

Wermager walked twice, Frietsch had one hit and one run and Wickliffe tallied one hit and one RBI.

Martin walked once and scored one run, Bauer tallied one RBI and Mendez drew one walk.

Martin, who did not play in the win over Des Moines Christian, leads Newton with 20 runs and 16 walks.

He needed just 76 pitches to get through seven innings on the mound. Martin (5-3) allowed two runs — none earned — on seven hits and no walks. He struck out three and lowered his earned run average to 1.17.

Clarke (17-12) lost for the sixth time in seven games.