Creston capitalizes on Winterset errors

The Panthers (2-0) opened their baseball season Tuesday with a home sweep of the Winterset Huskies.

Game one ended in the top of the seventh on Parker Varner’s 106th pitch — a swing and a miss for Winterset.

Creston took the 6-5 victory in game one and a more resounding 9-5 win in the second match.

“Good season opener against a nice Winterset team,” coach Brandon Phipps said. “I thought that our defense did a nice job all night long behind quality pitching.”

Varner pitched seven innings in game one, throwing nine strikeouts and allowing seven hits for five runs.

In game two, Tanner Ray, Brady McDonald and Kal Barber all had at least two innings on the mound. Ray and Barber each had three strikeouts while freshman McDonald had two.

In game one, the Panthers took advantage of several errors by the Huskies.

In the second inning, the Huskies tried to pick of Mattias Schultes leading off of first base. An overthrow gave him the chance to steal second.

Senior Camden Smith easily made it to first on a wild pitch on his third strike, getting Schultes on third.

Schultes scored on a hit by Mark Kasha. Camden Smith went home on a hit from McDonald. Smith would have been tagged out at home, but the throw went past the catcher.

“Offensively we were able to scratch several runs across and got some timely hits,” Phipps said. “We applied some pressure which created a few timely innings.”

McDonald was 2-3 at bat in game one with two RBIs. He put up another two RBIs in game two.

Schultes scored two runs with others coming in from Ray and Kasha. He put up another two runs in game two.

Sophomore catcher Tom Mikkelsen logged two runs in game two.

Freshman Logan Stehr got on base twice in game two — once on a walk and once after being hit by the pitch. He converted both into runs for the Panthers.

Though the Huskies were able to get some balls past the Panthers, Creston did a good job fielding.

At shortstop, Ray got in front of the ball, making the play to first several times.

In the outfield, veteran Tyler Riley made several catches to stop big plays.

But with only two games under their belt, Phipps knows the Panthers still have a lot of room to improve.

“As a team we need to continue to improve in aspects and get ready for Nodaway Valley on Wednesday and Carlisle Thursday,” he said.

Results from the game at Nodaway Valley were not in by press time.

After the Panthers play at Carlisle today, they have a week on the road, playing at Harlan Tuesday, at Red Oak Thursday and at ADM Friday.

Their next home game won’t be until June 2 in a doubleheader against Lewis Central.