Rough start leads to home loss for Raiders

MT. AYR — A sloppy first half inning of baseball was too much for Mount Ayr to overcome in an 11-4 loss to Interstate 35 Friday in Pride of Iowa Conference baseball.

The Raiders committed four errors and allowed three walks as the Roadrunners jumped out to a 6-0 lead after one-half inning.

“When you give somebody seven outs, that makes it tough,” said Mount Ayr coach Chris Elwood.

Four straight two-out walks scored a run for the Roadrunners in the second. An error allowed two more runs to score.

Mount Ayr did fight back with four runs in the home half of the second. Tristan Homes drove in a pair with a double. Brayden Swanle and Nick Wurster each had run-scoring singles.

“I liked the way the kids battled back after,” Elwood said. “We made it a decent game. The guys kept competing. We strung some hits together and scored the some runs.”

The Raiders did have some troubles against Interstate 35 pitcher Levi Sandquist and Sandquist’s knuckleball. The Raidres had only one hit in the final our innings.

“We couldn’t get enough to overcome a slow start,” Elwood said.

Interstate 35 11, Mount Ayr 4  R  H  E

I-35  630  020 0  —  11  9  1

MA  040  000 0  —  4  5  3

I-35: L. Sandquist 2K 0 BB and Major. MA: J. Taylor and M. Daughton. L. Jarred. N. Wurster. W — Sandquist.. L—Taylor. HR — None. 3B —None. 2B —MA: Tristan Homes. Multiple hitters — I-35: C. Vodraska 3. Sandquist. MA: Tristan Homes