BASEBALL: Earlham shootout win is highlight of the week

Between a trio of losses within conference play last week, the Nodaway Valley/OM baseball boys had one bright spot, surviving a close, high-scoring game at Earlham last Wednesday.

The Wolverines lost last Tuesday to Wayne 11-1, to Martensdale-St. Marys 10-1 Thursday and Southeast Warren 13-2 Friday.

“We’ve had some nice games and good hitting games, but we’ve just gotta get more consistent. The pitching needs to be more consistent,” NV/OM head coach Dan Jameson said. “We’ve gotta clean some things up in the field. We had a few errors Friday night that shouldn’t have happened but they did. We have to want every ball and make the play on them.”

The Earlham gave was a 14-3 Wolverine win powered by 11 hits and 10 free passes dealt by the Cardinals.

Of NV/OM’s hits, freshman Titan Foster, junior Keyin Steeve, senior Eli Harris and junior Ty Strode all hit doubles, while senior Paul Berg tripled. Harris led in hitting, going 3-for-4. Steeve also had a multi-hit night, going 2-for-4. Berg had three RBIs while Steeve and Berg each had two.

The Wolverines jumped early for a 3-1 lead before Earlham responded, plating three in the bottom of the second for a 4-3 advantage. NV/OM got the lead back in the fifth, plating six runs for a 10-9 edge. A hit from Keyin Steeve and solid pitching at the end helped shut the door for the win.

Harris went 5 1/3 innings on the mound, giving up five earned runs on 11 hits, walking two. Sophomore Manolis Galanakis came in to relieve him and got the win, pitching 2 2/3 innings, giving up one earned run on four hits, walking two and striking out two.

Earlham had 14 hits on the night with AJ Dunsky, Austen Rodgers and Jayden Jensen all recording three hits.

“We jumped out early on them and they came back and had a big inning on us,” Jameson said. “We ended up making a pitching change, and Manolis came in and did a great job. In our big fifth inning, that was mostly with two outs. We had guys who were hitting the ball well, pounded it and it was a lot of fun.”

Foster and Harris were both 2-for-3 against Wayne. Pitching was a shared effort between Steeve, Remington Woosley and Strode. Together, they gave up five earned runs on 13 hits, walked six, hit one batter and struck out four. Wayne had 13 hits.

NV/OM managed just five hits against MStM, led by two from Steeve. Woosley had a hit and an RBI.

The Wolverines scored twice in the third to cut into a 7-0 lead by Southeast Warren, but the Warhawks scored three in the fourth and again in the sixth to pull away. They had 11 hits against the Wolverines, including two doubles.

NV/OM had three hits — singles from Foster, Steeve and Strode.

The Wolverines (3-7 overall and 2-5 in the Pride of Iowa Conference) play four games this week — Monday at home against Southwest Valley, Tuesday at home against Mount Ayr, Wednesday at West Central Valley (Stuart) and Friday at home against Lenox.

“We’re sitting good with our pitching this week. We’ve just gotta have guys who will go out, get in the zone early and get after it,” Jameson said. “We’ve just gotta keep going, keep plugging away and keep improving.”