Creston plays nine, edges SWV in season opener

CORNING – The Creston Panthers baseball team won its season opener Wednesday night, bringing Southwest Valley to extra innings in a 5-4 victory in nine innings.

The Panthers jumped on the board first, scoring Bryce Fitzgerald and Gavin Gilliam in the third inning on a bases loaded double by Brayton Chesnut.

Creston added to the lead in the fourth with a single from James McDonald, scoring Fitzgerald to make it 3-0.

With the lead the Panthers were able to work with their bullpen a bit, pitching Keagan Smith 3 2/3 innings before handing the ball to Gavin Gillam, who recorded one out on one pitch.

Gavin Shawler and Eli Loudon took over the next five innings, pitching two and three innings, respectively. The two combined for seven strikeouts.

The Timberwolves took a small ball approach against Creston, utilizing the bunt to their advantage and getting several infield singles out of it. Their scoring opened with a ground out to the pitcher, plating Scotty Adcock who led off their half of the inning with a double. SWV pulled the score closer the next half inning on a ground out also, crossing the plate to make it 3-2.

“I think that was our plan from the start (to play small ball), depending on the situation. We just like to get guys on and move them,” said Southwest Valley head coach Stoney Gaule.

Loudon’s outing had him run into trouble in the bottom of the seventh, working into a bases loaded jam and pitching a walk to Dustin Lund. The walk scored the tying run, but that was all the Timberwolves were able to get as the game winning run was gunned down at the plate by right fielder Bryce Fitzerald.

“He did a nice job today,” said Creston head coach Steve Birchard on Loudon. “He didn’t look great in the bullpen ... I was confident enough in Eli and they were having trouble catching up to some of our pitchers and Eli throws a little bit above those guys. I was thinking we’d be alright.”

In extras Creston had a golden opportunity to break the tie on a leadoff hit from Loudon down the right field line, but an overly aggressive plan of attack sent Loudon home on an overthrow to third base. Loudon was out by several feet trying to score the go-ahead run.

Had Loudon been halted at third, the Panthers’ top of the lineup was due up with no outs following the lead off triple.

“I probably shouldn’t even of had Eli go to third there,” said Birchard. “He was safely on second and if they made a good throw we might have been out at third too. ... That was a bad play for us. We’ll get better out of this.”

The Panthers finally were able to break through in the ninth, plating a run on a Chesnut sacrifice fly. Evan Bruce added to it in the next at-bat, dropping one over the third baseman for an RBI single.

Southwest Valley had chances to bring it even, but a change in the Timberwolves gameplan brought the aggression out in extras. The Timberwolves were caught trying to move a runner into scoring position, making the final out at second base to end the game.

“They bunted the ball well and sacrificed and just drag bunt stuff that we didn’t play good defense on and some routine ground balls that we booted around a little bit,” said Birchard on Southwest Valley’s small ball approach. “... I didn’t know what to expect. All those guys that threw for them, they’re capable.”

The Timberwovles had six pitchers make appearances Wednesday. Teagan Lundquist, Aiden Gaule, Brendan Knapp, Tyler Pearson, Lund and Kade Hutchings all had limited pitch counts to keep them available for the rest of the week.

“They did the things they had to do right, there,” said Gaule. “There’s a few things we made mistakes on throughout the game and each one of those could have won us the game in seven (innings).”

UP NEXT – Creston plays Friday against Nodaway Valley for its home opener at 7:30 p.m. Southwest Valley takes on Bedford today (Thursday) at 7:30 p.m.

Creston 5, Southwest Valley 4

R  H E

Cres  002  100  002  —  5  11  6

SWV  000  110  101  —  4  6  2

CRES: Keagan Smith 3.1IP 1K 3BB; Gavin Gillam .1IP; Gavin Shawlter 2IP 2K; Eli Loudon 3IP 2BB 5K. SWV: Teagan Lundquist 1IP 2BB 1K; Aiden Gaule 1BB; Brendan Knapp 2IP 3BB 1K; Tyler Pearson 1IP 1BB 1K; Dustin Lund 1.2IP 1BB 4K; Kade Hutchings 2.1 IP 1BB 2K. W — Loudon. L - Hutchings. 3B — CRES: Loudon. 2B — CRES: Brayton Chesnut, Gavin Gillam. SWV: Teagan Lundquist, Scotty Adcock. RBI — CRES: Chesnut (3). SWV: Lund (2), Lundquist (1).