Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
On Saturday, April 9, the SNR Black Sox traveled to Washburn, N.D. to take on the Surrey Mustangs and the Washburn/Wilton/Center-Stanton Cardinals in the Washburn Triangular.
Up first for SNR were the Mustangs of Surrey, N.D., and the Black Sox didn’t waste time establishing a small lead. In the top of the first, SNR pounced on Mustangs’ starting pitcher Kekoa Munos, who struggled in his 2.1 innings of work.
SNR took advantage and scored two runs in the first, but weren’t able to add on in the following three innings, keeping the score relatively close.
A small lead is all that’s needed, however, when a team’s pitchers perform as well as Luke Yri and Keaton Cudworth did for the Black Sox.
In his four innings of work, Yri allowed just three hits and one earned run, while striking out four. Cudworth followed with a masterpiece: six strikeouts in a one-hit shutout through the final three innings.
For comparison, the Mustangs’ first two pitchers, Munos and Andrew Eby, gave up 15 hits, five earned runs and two walks over 5.1 innings.
Their pitching struggles allowed every Black Sox batter to earn at least one hit. Inflicting the most damage on the Mustangs were Koby Duda, Caden Price and Nick Berglund, combining for six hits and four of their teams’ five runs.
Delivering the fifth run was Luke Yri, who capped his brilliant outing on the mound with an RBI of his own. Not to be outdone, Cudworth went 2-for-3 in the batter’s box and crossed the plate to score a run.
Perhaps the most impressive, however, was the lack of errors from both teams. Despite struggling with mistakes in their first game of the season, SNR kept it clean all game long versus the Mustangs, propelling the Black Sox to a 5-1 win; their first in the 2022 win column.
Up next was their game against the Cardinals - an opponent that proved much more difficult to overcome for the Black Sox.
SNR started with one run in the top of the first, but the Cardinals countered with two of their own in the bottom of the inning. Their two runs came off SNR pitcher Kaden Jensen, who was pitching for the first time this season.
Jensen struggled against the top of the Cardinal’s lineup, and he wasn’t helped by a costly Black Sox error. He soon bounced back, however, and following the first inning the Cardinals wouldn’t score again with Jensen on the mound.
The Black Sox offense took advantage, scoring three runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth for a 6-1 lead. Most of their offense was powered by Berglund, who had a monstrous game in the batter's box.
Berglund went 2-for-4 at the plate, and was responsible for four of his teams’ seven runs, including the Black Sox’ first home run of the season in the fourth inning.
Koby Duda and Connor Knatterud also knocked in runs, and Jensen and Brody Weisenburger also had good games hitting, each going 2-for-3 at the plate.
However, the large lead SNR had built would soon evaporate, as costly Black Sox mistakes and clutch hitting by the Cardinals brought them back in the game.
With Knatterud now pitching, the Cardinals scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, which the Black Sox countered with a run of their own in the sixth.
Knatterud kept them from scoring again in the sixth inning, but with Cudworth back on the mound for the seventh, the Cardinals scored two more runs, neither of which were earned, and were threatening to do more.
Cudworth entered damage-control mode soon after, however, getting the outs he needed to end it in seven and put another win in the Black Sox’ win column.
When the dust settled, the final score was 7-6, sending SNR home with a 2-0 record on the day and a 2-1 record overall for the 2022 season.
Non-Region Baseball
Washburn Triangular
Surrey 1, SNR 5
at Washburn
Surrey: 001 000 0 - 1 4 0
SNR: 200 012 0 - 5 15 0
SNR Individual Stats
Hitting: Kaden Jensen 2-4, 1 run; Caden Price 3-4, 1 RBI, 1 run; Nick Berglund 1-4, 2 RBI; Luke Yri 1-4, 1 RBI; Keaton Cudworth 2-3, 1 run; Brody Weisenburger 1-4; Connor Knatterud 1-4, 1 run; Koby Duda 2-2, 1 RBI, 1 run, 2 BB; Bradyn Collier 2-4
Pitching: Yri 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO; Cudworth 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 6 SO
Surrey Individual Stats
Hitting: Kekoa Munos 1-3; Kanoa Munos 1-2, 1 RBI, 1 BB; Coltan Francis 1-3; Preston Burns 1-2, 1 run
Pitching: Ke. Munos 2.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO; A Eby 3.1 IP, 10 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO; Francis 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 SO
Non-Region Baseball
Washburn Triangular
W/W/C-S 6, SNR 7
at Washburn
Washburn 200 020 2 - 6 9 2
SNR: 103 201 0 - 7 12 1
SNR Individual Stats
Hitting: Jensen 2-3, 1 run, 1 BB; Berglund 2-4, 4 RBI, 1 run; Yri 1-4; Cudworth 1-3, 1 run; B. Weisenburger 2-3, 1 BB; Knatterud 2-4, 1 RBI, 1 run; Duda 1-4, 1 RBI, 1 run; Collier 1-4, 1 run
Pitching: Jensen 3.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO; Knatterud 3.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO; Cudworth 1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER
W/W/C-S Individual Stats
Hitting: Trey Koski 3-3, 2 runs, 1 BB; Owen Patterson 2-4, 3 runs; Alex Retterath 1-4, 2 RBI; L Miller 1-4, 2 RBI; Tyler Kulzer 1-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB; Jack Retterath 1-2, 1 run, 1 BB
Pitching: Kulzer 3.1 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO, 1 HR; A. Retterath 2.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO; Patterson 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 SO
