March 28, 2024

Benn shuts down Panther bats

Image 1 of 2

One night after a key doubleheader sweep against Kuemper Catholic, the Creston baseball team’s bats sputtered in a 6-0 loss to Atlantic on senior night.

With the win, Atlantic avenged a 9-1 home loss to the Panthers on June 12.

Creston dropped to 11-10 overall and 10-7 in the Hawkeye 10 Conference with the loss, falling out of a third-place tie with Glenwood. Atlantic improved to 15-10 and 10-8.

“It’s been a good week for us, as far as being at home for these four conference games,” Creston head coach Steve Birchard said. “The crowd has come out and that’s been fun. Tonight being senior night, we’d have liked to had a little better showing for Conner (Pals) and send him off with a victory, but it wasn’t our night.”

Creston managed just four hits against Atlantic starter Tristan Benn, who entered with a 3-2 record and a 1.17 earned run average in 30 innings pitched with 49 strikeouts compared to just 11 walks.

Benn struck out eight and walked none, hitting one batter in his seven innings of work.

“We talked about before the game, we thought we were going to see him (Benn),” Birchard said. “We knew he was tough on us last year one time. We just said we need to scratch some runs together. We have to learn how to fight to try to get three or four runs on this guy. It didn’t work out tonight. The Benn kid was definitely on and Jaden (Driskell) didn’t have his best night.”

Of Creston’s four hits, the Panthers lost two of those baserunners on the basepaths.

Chase Shiltz, Driskell, Cody Crawford and Gavin Woods each recorded one hit for the Panthers.

“First inning, we get two hits with two outs and that fell apart,” Birchard said. “We’ve got to shore up our baserunning. We’ve got guys stepping in and being courtesy runners or pinch-running, whatever, and that’s inexperience, a little bit. We’re getting to the point of the season we feel like we ought to be able to handle that stuff. We have to improve there, that’s for sure.”

Creston had runners in scoring position in the first, third and seventh innings, but could never push a run across.

Atlantic, meanwhile, jumped on Creston starter Driskell early, scoring two runs in the first inning on two hits. The Trojans added three more runs on five hits in the fourth inning to build a 5-0 lead and knock Driskell out of the game.

Driskell gave up five runs on nine hits with two walks, a hit batsman and one strikeout in four innings. Brody Frain pitched the final three innings, giving up one run on three hits with three hit batsmen.

Prior to the game, Pals was honored in a senior night ceremony with his parents Paul and Donna Pals.

“I told the team beforehand, it takes a lot of dedication and love of the game to stick around baseball for five years,” Birchard said. “And it’s obvious, him being the only senior and the only one in his class to play baseball for the past three years. Conner is a good kid. He’s going to be very successful in whatever he does.”

The Panthers return to action this afternoon at Treynor, before traveling to Winterset on Tuesday.

Junior varsity

The Creston JV team lost to Atlantic on Thursday, 11-2.

Deaven Reese was 2-for-2 in the game with an RBI, while Tucker Flynn had a hit with an RBI. Garrett Dahl, Cory Marquardt and Bryce Fitzgerald each recorded a hit.

Fitzgerald pitched all five innings with seven hits, four earned runs, 10 walks and two strikeouts.

“Errors hurt us defensively, but our pitching is coming around to what it needs to be to win some ballgames,” Creston JV coach Ben Landers said. “We just need to keep hitting like we have been and combine it with strikes and defense.”

Atlantic 6, Creston 0

R H E

Atlantic 200 300 1 — 6 12 1

Creston 000 000 0 — 0 4 0

A: Tristan Benn 8K 0BB 1HBP and Brendan Holmes. Cr: Jaden Driskell 1K 2BB 1HBP, Brody Frain (5) 0K 0BB 3HBP and Kadon Hulett. W — Benn. L— Driskell. HR — none. 3B — none. 2B — A: Holmes 1, Ryan Hawkins 1. RBI — A: Joey Walker 1, Collin Baker 1, Holmes 1, Hawkins 1, Travis Peterson 1, Chase McLaren 1. Multiple hitters — A: Walker 2, Hawkins 2, McLaren 2.