Baseball goes 2-0 Friday

Two victories in makeup conference games Friday completed a successful 3-1 week for the Creston baseball team.

The Panthers traveled to Shenandoah early in the day for afternoon action at Shenandoah to make up Tuesday’s rained out game. The Panthers won, 8-0, as pitchers Landyn Scherer, Brady McDonald and Rhett Driskell combined on a two-hit shutout.

Parker Varner led Creston’s 10-hit attack with three RBIs on two hits. Brayden Schoon doubled and Tom Mikkelsen drove in a pair of runs.

The Panthers returned home to face Clarinda in a contest rained out in Clarinda on Thursday. So, this week’s scheduled game at home against Clarinda has been moved to Clarinda, with senior recognition night now planned for tonight’s (Monday) doubleheader against St. Albert.

Varner improved his pitching record to 6-1 with a 1.57 ERA in cruising to a 5-2 victory over the Cardinals Friday night. He struck out 11 and had no walks, allowing two hits in the first inning and two in the seventh. Otherwise, the Cardinal offense was silent.

“When Parker’s got all of his stuff working, it makes my job easy,” said Creston pitching coach Cole Crawford. “His off-speed stuff was sharp today, changing angles on the batters. He gets a lot of soft contact when he’s pitching well.”

Tanner Ray and Tom Mikkelsen each had two hits including a double. Mattias Schultes added an RBI hit.

“We won the week, that’s always our goal, especially in conference play,” said Creston head coach Brandon Phipps. “We gave up two hits overall in the first game today and tonight Parker had everything going. In the first inning he was just falling behind in the count and they could hunt pitches. After that they couldn’t touch him. He got them to chase the slider on the outside half.”

Right fielder Brady McDonald drove in a run on a bunt and made an alert play in the field, gunning down Nolan Wagner at second base after Wagner tried to stretch a single into a double. McDonald picked up the ball in shallow right field and fired a strike to shortstop Tanner Ray.

“That was a heads-up play by a freshman,” Phipps said. “We played clean tonight.”

Creston stays in third place in the Hawkeye Ten at 11-16 and improved to 16-10 overall going into the St. Albert (4-8 league, 9-12 overall) doubleheader. Clarinda fell to 7-8 and 7-12.

Creston 8, Shenandoah 0

Shenandoah pitching: Cole Scamman 5K 3BB, Dalton Athen (7) 1K 0BB. Creston pitching: Landyn Scherer 4K 1BB, Brady McDonald (6) 1K 2BB, Rhett Driskell (7) 0K 1BB. W — Scherer. L— Scamman. 2B — Cr: Brayden Schoon. RBI — Cr: Parker Varner 3, Tom Mikkelsen 2, Brady McDonald 1, Tanner Ray 1, Logan Steher 1. Multiple hitters — Cr: Schoon 2, Varner 2, Mikkelsen 2, Ray 2. Sh: Levi Green 2.

Creston 5, Clarinda 2

Clarinda pitching: Cooper Phillips 2K 4BB, Connor Luzmoor (4) 0K 1BB. Creston pitching: Parker Varner 11K 0BB. W — Varner. L— Phillips. 2B — Cr: Tom Mikkelsen, Tanner Ray. Cl: Nolan Wagoner. RBI — Cr: Brady McDonald 1, Tom Mikkelsen 1, Mattias Schultes 1. Cl: Kaden Roop 1, Jordan Butt 1. Multiple hitters — Cr: Ray 2, Mikkelsen 2. Cl: N. Wagoner 2.