Homers carry Falcons to sweep

COUNCIL BLUFFS — St. Albert stayed in a second-place tie with Lewis Central in the Hawkeye 10 baseball race with a pair of victories over Creston Thursday, 4-3 and 10-5.

The Falcons improved to 11-4 in league play and 17-8 overall. Creston fell to 6-10 and 9-13.

Thursday’s opener was a battle to the finish as senior Kadon Hulett went the distance on the mound for the Panthers.

Creston took a 1-0 lead in the second inning before falling behind 3-1 in the third. The Panthers tied it at 3-3 in the top of the fourth and it stayed that way until St. Albert plated the winning run with one out in the bottom of the seventh.

“We had threatened in our half of the seventh when Hulett reached on a walk and we got him to second,” Creston coach Steve Birchard said. “But we stranded him there with two strikeouts. In their half they loaded the bases on two hit batters and a walk. So, we had the infield playing in for the force at home and (Cy) Patterson got a single through the infield. We outhit them (9-5) but they got the timely hits and produced better.”

Hulett had three strikeouts and four walks in his 92-pitch effort. Cody Crawford led the Panther offense with a pair of doubles. Dustin Merritt and Michael Scherer each stroked two singles.

It was the Garret Reisz show for St. Albert in the second game. He clubbed a three-run homer in the Falcons’ six-run third inning and added a two-run shot in the four-run sixth. The Falcons did not score in any other inning against Crawford and relief pitcher Jack Frey.

“We were falling behind in the count and they’re good enough that they’re going to sit on a 3-1 pitch they like,” Birchard said.

Merritt had two more hits in the nightcap and Jaden Driskell also had two hits. Hulett and Luke Latham doubled.

UP NEXT — Creston has a pair of upcoming nonconference games, starting with a 1 p.m. contest at Woodward-Granger on Saturday. The Panthers travel to St. Marys Monday to take on Class 1A third-ranked Martensdale-St. Marys.

St. Albert 4, Creston 3

R H E

Cr 010 200 0 — 3 9 1

SA 003 000 1 — 4 5 1

Cr: Kadon Hulett 3K 4BB and Jaden Driskell. SA: Brandon Behrens 3K 2BB, Jake Hubbard (6) 3K 1BB and Eli Finn. W — Hubbard (4-0). L— Hulett (1-1). HR — none. 3B — none. 2B — Cr: Cody Crawford 2. SA: Danny Koch. RBI — Cr: Driskell 1, Hulett 1. SA: Koch 2, Cy Patterson 1, Brandon Williams 1. Multiple hitters — Cr: Crawford 2, Dustin Merritt 2, Michael Scherer 2.

St. Albert 10, Creston 5

R H E

Cr 001 013 0 — 5 8 0

SA 000 604 x — 10 17 3

Cr: Cody Crawford 1K 2BB, Jack Frey (4) 1K 1BB, Michael Scherer (6) 0K 0BB and Beau Barncastle. SA: Jeff Miller 1K 0BB, Caleb Schnider (6) 0K 3BB, Ethan Bernard (6) 1K 2BB and Lance Wright. W — Miller (4-1). L— Crawford (1-3). HR — SA: Garret Reisz 2. 3B — none. 2B — Cr: Kadon Hulett, Luke Latham. SA: Cy Patterson. RBI — Cr: Driskell 1, Hulett 1. SA: Reisz 5, Koch 2, Wright 2, Behrens 1. Multiple hitters — Cr: Driskell 2, Merritt 2. SA: Eli Finn 3, Behrens 2, Reisz 2, Patterson 2.