Creston falls on senior night

Creston baseball lost its seventh straight game with a 14-2 senior night loss to Lewis Central Friday.

Four seniors – Luke Latham, Brayton Chesnut, Gavin Gillam and Hayden Green – were honored before the game, with Creston head coach Steve Birchard saying “consistent” and “growth” are two words to define the seniors.

With players participating in multiple sports and going through offseason workouts in the morning then playing baseball games in the evening, Birchard said it’s not always easy to want to do the things baseball players have to do during the summer when their friends are at home.

“I have all kinds of respect for our seniors,” he said. “I think that was maybe the little energy we had that said we weren’t going to bow down to these guys, maybe we were going to get beat, but we were going to take our swings and get after it.”

With the seniors honored, the game didn’t start in the Panthers’ favor. Jordan Wardlow led the game with a home run to center field off Evan Bruce. A double drove in the Titans’ second run of the game with two outs.

An error on Triston Barncastle at second base that would have ended the inning kept two runners on base. Nolan Miller hit a double to left to give Lewis Central a 4-0 lead midway through the first inning.

Facing Iowa Central commit Easton Dermody, Creston put runners on second and third after Brayton Chesnut singled up the middle and Gavin Gillam hit a hard shot down the right-field line. Both runners were left on base.

Lewis Central scored one run after a single led off the second inning, adding to the Titans’ now five-run lead. Dermody settled in, starting strike out batters, but Cael Turner hit a hard shot down the third-base line for a stand up double. Turner was stranded on third after the third strikeout of the inning.

“His fastball, curveball were very good,” Birchard said. “Our mindset was let’s get to him early in the count, get the fastball. Then as a good pitcher will do, he started throwing his offspeed for a strike and we’d sit back on our haunches and let one blow by us, but I thought we had better at-bats (than Thursday).”

The Titans scored one in the top of the third off an error from Luke Latham at short to extend the lead to 6-0.

In his second at-bat, Gillam hit a hard groundball through the middle. Cole Strider ran for Gillam, coming all the way around to give Creston its first run of the game to cut the lead to 6-1. The Panthers scored again in the top of the fifth.

Gillam finished 2-for-2 with a hit by pitch and one run.

Birchard said he felt better about the team’s hitting one of the best pitchers the team has seen all year.

Bruce singled to start the fifth inning before Chesnut scored Bruce on an infield hit to third base.

The lone fifth-inning run wasn’t enough for Creston as Lewis Central continued to add in the top of the fifth. Things fell apart in the top half of the inning as Titans scored eight runs in the inning to push its total to 14.

Mental errors as Lewis Central hit the ball around the park started to pile up for the Panthers.

“It’s frustrating because we try to talk about thinking a play ahead, what’s going to happen, what you should be doing and when you should hit the cut,” Birchard said. “... Maybe it’s play a lot more games in the season and see that experience more, but we aren’t there with that stuff.”

Five walks and five base hits contributed to the inning, ending Creston’s night in the fifth inning.

“I, personally, feel responsible for that stuff because you’ve got to work it, you’ve got to put them in situations,” Birchard said.

UP NEXT – Creston faces ADM on the road Monday at 7 p.m.

Lewis Central 14, Creston 2 (5)

R  H  E

LC  411 08X X —  14  12  1

CR  001 01X X — 2  6  2

LC: Easton Dermodoy 5IP 13Ks 1BB and Tevin Statzer. CR: Evan Bruce 4IP 1K 1BB, Luke Laham 2/3IP 1K 2BB, Cole Strider 1/3IP and Gavin Gillam. W — Dermody. L – Bruce. HR — Jordan Wardlow. 3B — None. 2B — LC: Jonah Pomrenke, Bryson Sharon, Nolan Miller, Aron Harrington. CR: Gavin Gillam, Cael Turner. RBI — Bryson Sharon (3), Wardlow (2), Pomrenke (2), Colby Roth (2), Miller (2), Dermody (1). CR: Brayton Chesnut (1).