Area baseball briefs

With a month left in regular-season baseball, area teams are working to put themselves in the best position for the postseason.

Results from Thursday games not available at time of publication. Stats are from Bound.

Lenox

The Tigers are 6-3 overall but 2-3 in the Pride of Iowa. Their most recent win was 9-8 Wednesday at Riverside. Dawson Evans went 2-4 at bat with three RBIs. Rydder Hogan went 3-4 at bat with two runs and one RBI. Evans pitched five innings for the Tigers, striking out seven batters.

Junior Gabe Funk leads the team this season in runs with 13 and stolen bases with 12. Senior Carter Reed has the RBI title with nine; junior Brody Brokaw has eight. Evans leads in hits with 15.

On the mound, sophomore Laramie Stoaks has 21 strikeouts in four games pitched. Funk has 17 in his four games.

Lenox’s three losses were to Bedford, East Union and Martensdale-St. Marys. All three games were lost by two runs or less. They played Thursday night at CAM and will host Southwest Valley Friday.

East Union

The Eagles are 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the Pride of Iowa. Their most recent game was a 6-1 loss to Bedford Tuesday. Monday they pulled off a narrow 7-6 win over Mormon Trail.

Junior Ty Tallmon led the Eagles against the Saints, going 4-4 at bat for two runs and three RBIs. Eighth-grader Braxdyn Tucker pitched almost five innings, striking out eight batters.

Senior Austin Lack leads the team this season in runs with 11. Junior Fischer Buffington has a team-high nine RBIs while senior Seth Hudson adds six.

On the mound, Lack has 27 strikeouts in four games pitched. Hudson has 21 in his four. Buffington has pitched five games and has a team-low 0.68 ERA.

East Union’s two conference losses are to Southeast Warren and Bedford. They played Thursday at Stanton and host Martensdale-St. Marys on Friday.

Mount Ayr

The Raiders are 4-4 overall and 4-2 in the Pride of Iowa. Their most recent wins were 13-0 over Central Decatur Wednesday and 9-8 over Wayne Tuesday.

Against Wayne, the game was back-and-forth including tied at eight going into the final inning. Senior Preston Fleharty led on offense going 3-4 at bat for four runs and two RBIs. He stole six bases. Sophomore Tate Dugan had a game-high three RBIs on three hits.

Fleharty leads the Raiders this season in runs with 11. Freshman Adler Reed has a team-high six RBIs with Fleharty, Dugan and Rowan Sackett each adding four.

On the mound, Dugan has 10 strikeouts in three games pitched. Drew Graham has nine in his four games.

Mount Ayr’s two conference losses are to East Union and Lenox. They host Nodaway Valley on Friday.

Southwest Valley

The Timberwolves are 3-8 overall and 1-3 in the Pride of Iowa. Their most recent win was 17-7 over Bedford on May 28. Since then, they’ve lost five straight.

Their most recent Pride of Iowa game was a narrow 14-13 loss to Wayne last Friday, May 31. The Timberwolves had the lead through four innings until the Falcons tied it up in the fifth. Wayne took their first lead of the game in the final inning.

““It was a tough game for both teams in the field,” Southwest Valley coach Keegan Longabaugh said. “They capitalized more on the errors that we had. We didn’t adjust to their pitching like we would’ve liked to.”

Senior Brayden Maeder went 4-5 at bat for three runs and two RBIs. Freshman Brody Crozier and senior Ethan Bruce each logged two runs. Pitcher Gavin Wetzel had two strikeouts and Walker Bissell had three.

Senior Isaac Currin and junior Beau Johnston lead the Timberwolves this season with nine runs apiece. Eighth-grader Wyatt Shires adds eight. Currin and Maeder have a team-high 10 RBIs each. Bruce adds nine.

On the mound, Currin has 25 strikeouts in six games pitched. Wetzel has a team-low ERA of 3.97.

Southwest Valley’s three conference losses are to Martensdale-St. Marys, Mount Ayr and Wayne. They played At Essex Thursday and travel to Lenox Friday.

Murray

The Mustangs are 2-4 overall and 1-0 in the Bluegrass-West. Their most recent win 6-2 over Mount Ayr Monday.

Against the Raiders, freshman Wyatt Patton went 2-3 at bat for two runs. Junior Nathaniel Rowe had two RBIs. Freshman pitcher Ayden Lamb struck out four batters with an ERA of 1.

Freshman Keegan Chew leads the Mustangs this season with four runs. Rowe has a team-high four RBIs with Kace Patton, Caden Page and Wyatt Patton each adding three.

On the mound, Lamb has a team-high 15 strikeouts in three games pitched and an ERA of 1.75.

The Mustangs played Seymour Thursday and have a doubleheader with Ankeny Christian on Friday.