Rams take control late, top Panthers

Through four innings of Tuesday’s Hawkeye 10 baseball opener for Creston and Glenwood, both teams stared each other down.

It would be a matter of who would blink first, allowing the other team to take control of the game.

Creston was the one that blinked first.

Glenwood scored eight runs over the final three innings to earn an 8-2 league victory.

The Rams did their damage first in the fifth with three runs. They added four more in the sixth and one more in the seventh.

“We were the ones that blinked first,” said Creston coach Steve Birchard.

Panther starting pitcher Brenden McDowell had worked his way out of a number of jams early on as he fought with his control. McDowell walked two, but hit five batters.

In the second, McDowell uncorked a wild pitch with Cade Van Ness on third. Catcher Beau Barncastle retrieved the ball quickly and flipped to McDowell in time for the out.

The Rams later had the bases loaded, but McDowell induced a groundout to end the inning.

The Panthers had an early opportunity to change momentum.

Eli Loudon singled, took second on Luke Latham’s sacrifice, then moved to third on a passed ball.

Loudon was left stranded as Rams pitcher A.J. Slaughter induced a flyout to short right and a groundout to end the inning.

“Hopefully we could break the ice there, get in on them, but that didn’t happen,” Birchard said.

It was all Glenwood from there.

In the fifth, Ethan Fisher had an RBI single. Cole Loeffelbein added an RBI double in the inning. Jake King also had an RBI single, leading Birchard to pull McDowell for Loudon.

The Rams were able to find success in the sixth against Loudon, scoring four more runs. Fisher and Loeffelbein each drove in a run. Another run scored on a fielders’ choice ground ball, while another scored on a King sacrifice fly.

Slaughter dominated the Panther batters. He tossed a one-hit shutout through six, striking out 12 and throwing 91 pitches before being lifted.

Slaughter’s speed raced the ball past Panther hitters.

“That’s one of the harder throwers we’ll see in the conference,” Birchard said. “We haven’t seen anybody like that. We see live-arm batting practice, but getting timing down on stuff like that takes time.”

The offense must do more to help out the pitching staff, Birchard noted.

“We need to be able to scratch out runs,” Birchard said. “Our pitching is not going to be able to keep people down to 1-2 runs. We better be able to score more runs.”

Creston scored twice in the seventh. Kadon Hulett and Dustin Merritt drew walks. Hulett’s pinch runner Rylan Luther scored on a Luke Latham single. McDowell drove in the other run with a groundout.

UP NEXT — Creston (1-1, 0-1) hosts Nodaway Valley Thursday in nonconference play.

Glen 000 034 1 — 8 7 0

Crest 000 000 2 — 2 5 0

Glenwood pitchers A.J. Slaughter 12K 2BB and Cade Van Ness, Jake King (7) 0K 2BB. Creston pitchers Brenden McDowell 2K 2BB and Beau Barncastle; Eli Loudon (5) 1K 2BB; Jack Frey (7) 0K 1BB. W — Slaughter. L— McDowell. HR — None.. 3B — none. 2B — G: Cole Loeffelbein. RBI — G: Ethan Fisher, 2, Cole Loeffelbein, Jake King, 2. C: Nathan Pudenz, Brenden McDowell. Multiple hitters — G: Ethan Fisher, 2; Cole Loeffelbein, 2. C: none.

JV

Creston’s JV fell to Glenwood 6-5.

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