SPOONER — The Spooner Cardinals took a tough loss to a very good Haugen Knights team in Haugen on Saturday night, June 8.
Knights 10, Cardinals 4
One week removed from a narrow road loss to the Haugen Knights, Spooner travelled back to Haugen for another shot at the Knights. The game started off in favor of the Cardinals as they scored 4 runs in the top of the first inning after three straight singles got the offense rolling.
The hits were followed by three consecutive walks and a passed ball to score the remaining runs.
The Cardinals held the Knights scoreless in the first inning despite a runner reaching third base. Unfortunately, the wheels fell off in the second inning for the Cardinals as the first five batters reached base safely with hits, followed by a walk and hit batter. That signaled the end of the day for the Cardinals starting pitcher Jeremy Bloomquist, with the score now 5-4 in favor of Haugen.
Kyle Gauger came on for emergency relief. The next batter hit a sacrifice fly for the first out and was followed by a walk, fielders choice groundout and another double to blow the game open at 8-4 before the Cardinals could get the final out via strikeout.
After an excruciatingly long two innings, the rest of the game hummed along as the Cardinals third pitcher Chad Patko tossed the final six innings for the Cardinals, giving up a run in the third and seventh innings.
Unfortunately, the Knights relievers dominated the Cardinals lineup over the last seven innings by allowing only two hits and walking/hitting four batters.
Over the first third of the season, Spooner has shown that big innings are their strength, but prolonged offensive scoring throughout the game can be hard to come by. This will need to be improved upon as the Cardinals look to turn the page after losing a pair of the games to the Haugen Knights.
The Cardinals defense has been superb this season, as the team is averaging under one error per game. The pitching has also been relatively solid despite being without two of their main arms from the 2023 season, so new pitchers will be stepping into roles that they may have been limited to in the prior year.
Coming up
The Cardinals (3-2, 1-2 Indy) take on the Blue Hills Beasts on Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Beasts are a new WBA team in 2024 and play their home games at Ladysmith High School for 2024. They are currently 0-3 on the Indy League season, with all three losses coming last weekend, with two of them being close games to Brill and Hayward.
They figure to face some growing pains but also feature a scrappy bunch of baseball players.
Standings
Hayward 2-0
Haugen 2-1
Brill 3-2
Spooner 1-2
Blue Hills 0-3
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