ARDEN HILLS — The Stillwater baseball team hit the ground running with a 9-3 Suburban East Conference victory at Mounds View on Wednesday, April 10. It was the season opener for the Ponies against a perennial conference contender, but they jumped out to an early lead and cruised from there.
Stillwater finished with 13 hits and received four scoreless innings from starter Dylan Bloom in knocking off the Mustangs (0-1 SEC, 1-1), who are one of five SEC teams ranked among the state’s top eight in Class AAAA by the Minnesota Baseball Coaches Association.
“It’s important because Mounds View has a great program and it’s a great way to measure yourself a bit,” Ponies coach Mike Parker said. “You never know how that first game is going to go, but you’re excited because the kids have worked hard and tonight our hitting was great. We hit through the lineup really well.”
The No. 2-ranked Ponies (1-0, 1-0) are scheduled to host top-ranked East Ridge (1-0, 2-0) in another conference contest on Friday, April 12.
Three Stillwater pitchers walked a total of 10 batters, but limited the Mustangs to six hits and were able to work out of trouble several times. The Ponies turned a double play in the first and Mounds View also left the bases loaded in the second, sixth and seventh innings. Bloom also picked off two runners in the game.
“Dylan had a great first outing,” Parker said.
Karson Foster also pitched 1 2/3 of an inning for the Ponies and AJ Levy finished it off by recording the final four outs.
“We walked 10 guys but were able to get out of it and we just had some big hits and we ran the bases really well,” Parker said. “The walks didn’t come back to haunt us because they didn’t have any big hits to push home two or three runs at a time, but there was a lot of traffic on the bases. We were able to get out of those innings and were able to capitalize on our runners.”
Charlie Rowan drove in two runs and led the Ponies with three hits while teammates Levy, Owen Maslowski and Joe Fredkove added two hits apiece. Stillwater also received production from its bench while receiving three pinch hits in the game.
“The guys stepped up and got hits and it was a lot of fun to see,” Parker said.
After scoring two runs in the first inning, Stillwater added two more with a rally that started with two outs in the second to build a 4-0 lead.
“Guys were having good at bats and that was kind of key to keep it going and we kept adding on, which in the end took some pressure off,” Parker said. “We played very good defense,” Parker said. “We have to put some things together pitching-wise but our approach to hitting was really good.”
Stillwater 2 2 0 0 1 1 3 — 9 13 1
Mounds View 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 — 3 6 3
WP: Dylan Bloom 4-ip, 3-h, 0-r, 0-er, 4-bb, 5-so
LP: Andrew Gette 4 1/3-ip, 4-h, 4-r, 4-er, 3-bb, 4-so
Leading hitters: St, AJ Levy 2x4 (2 RBI), Charlie Rowan 3x5 (2 RBI), Owen Maslowski 2x4 (2B, RBI), Joe Fredkove 2x4 (2B), Blake Vanek 1x4 (2 RBI), Henry Mestad 1x1, Pat Lundgren 1x1 and Jack Runk 1x1; MV, Hayden Sperbeck 2x4, Nate Edelman 1x1 (RBI), David Shields 2x3 (RBI) and Robert Price 1x2.
Most Popular
Comments / 0