Cardinals drop games over holiday

SPOONER — The Spooner Cardinals were on the losing end of a pair of baseball games during the July 4 holiday weekend.

Hayward 9, Spooner 1The Cardinals lost their first game in Hayward on the Fourth of July, mostly due to their own uncharacteristic sloppy defense and inability to hit.

Spooner struck first with a run in the top of the first inning. Nick Webster singled with a hard line drive off the pitcher’s glove and was followed by a deep shot to right-center by Chad Patko to score Webster. Sam Holden blooped a single into the infamous Bermuda Triangle in shallow right field (on the line), but Patko had to wait to see the ball fall and couldn’t score. Trevor Brimblecom grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Jeremy Bloomquist started for the Cardinals and pitched scoreless first, third and fourth innings. Unfortunately, the second inning was not scoreless. Hayward scored nine runs, with only two of them being earned.

Hayward capitalized on two Spooner errors, with a few others not being counted errors (mental mistake or fielders choice). After the second inning, Hayward did not have a base runner reach second base for the rest of the game.

Auston Sigfrids pitched the final eight frames for Spooner and kept Hayward off the base paths. Spooner’s offense was also pretty minimal despite out-hitting the Hawks 7 to 6 on the game, but three of the seven Cardinals hits came in the first inning.

Haugen 8, Spooner 4Heading into Sunday, the Cardinals were facing a season sweep at the hands of the Haugen Knights and were determined to keep that from happening.

Haugen scored first with a run in the first inning before adding two more in the fourth. Spooner answered with a pair of runs in the fourth after Holden led off with a single and advanced to third two batters later. Zach Rombach singled to right field to score Holden and put the Cardinals on the board. With runners on the corners, Rombach was picked off by the Knights catcher but opted to take second base, which barely allowed the Cardinals pinch runner to score from third due to hesitation. Ultimately, the Cardinals were back into the game trailing 3-2.

The Knights added another run in the sixth inning before taking control of the game in the seventh scoring three runs and taking a 7-2 lead. Fortunately, Spooner strung together some solid at-bats in the eighth inning to score a pair of runs and make the deficit manageable for the ninth at 7-4.

That’s when the rain started, just as the teams began the ninth inning and with one out, a 1-2 count and a runner on first base. The teams were in a rain delay after over five minutes of heavy downpour. With the field seemingly drenched, the sun came out and after several buckets full of water, the team had the field playable again.

Haugen doubled with two outs to drive their runner in and take the final 8-4 lead. Spooner managed to load the bases with two outs but ended the game with a line drive to the second baseman.

It was one of the more disappointing weekends for the Cardinals in recent memory, as they lost a pair of games but also have been swept for the first time since the Indy League plays each team three times (2020).

Spooner will need to shift gears and buckle down for the last three weeks of the season, as the team could greatly use each win (four league games remain) they can get.

Spooner (5-5, 3-5 Indy) will host unbeaten Hayward on Friday night, July 12, at 7:30 p.m.

Current Independent League standings see Hayward leading at 5-0, Brill 5-3, Haugen 4-3, Spooner 3-5 and Blue Hills 0-6.