Wausa Baseball, Softball play through the heat

WAUSA — Another week of baseball and softball is in the books. The heat moved in this week and the night games were pleasant to sit and watch.

On Monday night the younger age groups traveled to Randolph for game. The 5/6 baseball boys team ended in a tie but were entertaining to watch. The little Vikings are learning every week and improving with every game. The 7/8 baseball boys ended with a loss but played a close game. The score ended up being 11- 12. The 9/10 baseball boys were up next, and they won 3-1. The Vikings started the night up to bat. Dawson Kraft hit a single to center field as did Ashton Baue. Unfortunately, the boys could not make it home to score. Ashton started the night pitching for the Vikings. He would earn a strikeout while Levi Suhr on 2nd base would earn the next two outs with a good stop on a ground ball to throw to 1st base and then catch a pop fly for the 3rd out. At the end of the 1st inning, it was 0-0. During the 2nd inning, the Vikings would have 3 batters up and 3 outs, so no runs scored. Ashton would earn 2 strikeouts for 2 outs and the 3rd out would be a strikeout from the coach pitching. The Randolph team would get a triple in the bottom of the 2nd inning to take the lead with a score of 0-1. During the top of the 3rd inning Drew Dawson hit a single to get on base and then Dawson Kraft came up to bat and hit a double to bring Drew home to score the Viking’s first run of the evening. Ben Barta would also get on base with a single. Ashton Baue would hit a double to center field to bring Dawson home. Ben Barta would go in as pitcher during the bottom of the 3rd inning. He would earn all 3 outs with strikeouts. During the top of the 4th inning Noel Kumm and Jake Schindler would get on base after being hit by the pitcher. Rudd Carlson was able to hit Noel home before getting out himself on the way to 1st base. Ben was up to pitch again for the Vikings and earned another strikeout while the other two outs came from a coach pitch strikeout and then Jake Schindler fielded a ground ball to throw out the runner to 1st base for the 3rd out. The Vikings were ahead by 2 points at the beginning of the 5th inning, but they could not add to the lead as they did not get any more runs in during their time at bat. Dawson Kraft would go in to pitch for the Vikings. He would earn 2 strikeouts. The Cardinals would give a scare to the Vikings by hitting a triple with 2 outs. Crue Claussen would end the rally of the Cardinals with a great snag on 3rd base to throw to 1st base to end the inning. The Vikings would again go scoreless as the hits would just not find the holes in the Cardinal defense. Dawson would finish out the night pitching and would earn 2 more strikeouts and the other out would come from a strikeout from coach pitch. The Vikings brought home the win with a final score of 3-1. Meanwhile the older Randolph baseball teams traveled to Wausa for their games. The 11/12 PeeWee team is made up of players from Osmond and Wausa, but they play under Osmond. Kelly Vanness would start the night off pitching for PeeWee team. The Osmond PeeWee team would battle back and forth with Randolph but in the bottom of the 4th and final inning the runs would start to rack up for the Osmond team. Koy Kraft would score along with Kelly Vanness to end the game with a win of 9-7. The 13/14 Pony team is also made up of Wausa and Osmond players and plays under Wausa. Jake Munter would start the night off pitching for the Vikings. Jake would get all 3 outs for the Vikings with 2 strikeouts and a ground ball back to him that he threw to 1st for an out. The Vikings would struggle getting their bats going the 1st inning and would not get any runs home. During the 2nd inning, Jake would earn another strikeout and snag a ground ball to throw to 1st base. Colton Baue as catcher would throwdown to 2nd base where Cade Wakeley would get the tagout for the 3rd out. Donavin Seagren would get a double in the bottom of the 2nd inning but unfortunately not be able to make it home to score. Colton Baue would go in to pitch during the 3rd inning. Vinnie Vanness would make a play at third to catch a ground ball and throw it to Jake on 1st base for an out. Koy Kraft as catcher would also earn an out with a 3rd strike drop by throwing from home to 1st base. The boys started to find their rhythm in batting as during the bottom of the 3rd inning the runs would add up. Caleb Gartner and Max Bruce would get on base with a walk and dead ball. Colton would hit a single and bring Caleb home. Cody Gansebom would also hit and bring home Max. Jake would get on base but not before his hit would get Colton out. Cody would steal home. Jake and Vinnie would get home before the Cardinals earned their 3rd out. This tied up the game at 5 a piece going into the 4th inning. Colton would earn 3 strikeouts but not before Randolph scored 6 runs. Time had expired on the clock so this would be the final time the Vikings went to bat. Colton would walk to base and then steal from 1st base to 3rd base and eventually come home for a run. Jake, Vinnie, and Cade would also walk to base. Jake would make in home with the walks. With 2 outs and Caleb up to bat there was a wild pitch which allowed Vinnie and Cade to steal home. Caleb would end up getting on base with a walk, but Randolph would get their 3 outs and the Vikings would suffer a loss with a final score of 9-11.

Tuesday night the Lady Viking Softball teams would travel to Verdigre to take on the Stingers. The 5/6 softball team would not play that night. The 7/8 Little Lady Vikings softball team would come home with a win with a score of 9-3. The 11/12 Lady Viking softball team would come up just short of bringing home a win also with a score of 11-12. The 13/14 Lady Viking Softball team would also fall to the Stingers with a score of 3-8. The big win would come from the 16/18 Lady Viking softball team as they took home a win when the run rule took effect in the 3rd inning. Sienna West would pitch for all 3 innings. Sienna would earn 2 strikeouts in the 1st inning but not before the Stingers would score 3 runs. Sienna would finish out the inning by snagging a hit that grounded back to her and throw the batter out on 1st base. The Lady Vikings would start out slow on batting during the 1st inning with 3 batters up and 3 outs. In the top of the 2nd inning the Vikings would start off with a couple good hits. Peyton Privett and Charlie Price would get on base and make it home to score. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Sienna would earn another strikeout while the infielders would make the next two outs. The score going into the 3rd inning had the Vikings down by 1 run with a score of 2-3. The top of the 3rd inning was definitely the Lady Vikings’ inning. Despite the 1st batter up earning a strikeout for the Lady Vikings, they started a hitting rally after that out. Taylor Privett, Morgan Kleinschmit, Jaide Kaiser, Taylor Alexander, Christina Martinson, Sienna, Charlie, and Holly Johnson would hit singles. Blair Wakeley would hit a double while Addi Sporleder and Madison Abbenhaus would hit triples. Peyton Privett and Abby Kaiser would get on base with a walk and Marissa Bruce would take a dead ball to make it first. The Lady Vikings would bring home 15 runs that inning. The Stingers had a chance to make up some ground in the bottom of the 3rd inning, but the Lady Vikings defense was strong. Christina would catch a pop fly in center field for the 1st out, then Sienna would snag the ground ball at pitcher for the 2nd out while Peyton at short stop would make the 3rd out by catching a pop out to short stop. The final score of the game was 17-3.

On Wednesday night the Creighton baseball teams would travel to Wausa for games. The 5/6 baseball boys would play in sweltering heat even though their game did not start until 6pm. The trees in the park would not provide shade until part way through the 7/8 baseball game. The 7/8 baseball boys would play a very entertaining game. The boys would get down early in the first two inning being behind by one point despite great hits like a triple from Case Dawson in the bottom of the 2nd inning. During the top of the 2nd inning Drew Dawson on 1st base was on fire as he got 2 outs on 1st base and then assisted as Rhett Kraft as catcher threw a short ground ball to 1st base for the out. During the bottom of the 3rd inning the 7/8 Vikings runs added up quickly. Eddie Stevens would get hit a single and Rhett would hit a double. Brooks Seagren would hit a single getting Eddie home. Jace Lauck would hit a double. Camden Vanness would get Rhett and Brooks home with his hit. Case and Wade Bloomquist would also hit and bring runs home before Creighton would get the 3rd out. Going into the final 4th inning the teams were ties at 4 apiece. The Vikings would get the bases loaded before being able to earn the first two outs. Rhett as pitcher would get the ground ball and throw to home to Eddie as catcher to earn 2 outs. This play was big for this age group as they had the mind set to get the runner out, so he did not score. Camden would get the 3rd out on 3rd base. Creighton had scored 4 runs that inning. The Vikings started strong with Eddie hitting a single and then Rhett getting double. Drew Dawson got out on the way to 1st but advanced Eddie home. Brooks would hit a double bringing Rhett home. Jace Lauck would hit a single. Jace Clausen would hit a double that would bring Brooks home. Case would come up and hit a double bringing the winning runs home. The 7/8 Viking boy’s baseball team came out with a winning score of 13-12. The 9/10 Vikings baseball team was up next. It was a defense battle for both teams all throughout the game. Ashton Baue would start as pitcher for the Vikings. Crue Clausen would get the 1st out by catching a pop up at 2nd base. Ashton would strikeout batters for the next 2 outs. The Vikings would put 3 batters up and get three outs right away. In the 2nd inning Ashton would get all 3 outs with strikeout and not runs scored. The Vikings would try to get a run in but was unsuccessful. Again, for the top of the 3rd inning, Ashton would earn all 3 outs with strikeouts but 1 run by Creighton was allowed into put Creighton ahead by 1 run. During the bottom of the inning the Vikings just could not get on base despite their best effort. Ashton continued to pitch into the 4th inning and earn another strikeout and then Crue Clausen would tag a runner from 1st base to 2nd base for the 2nd out. Noel Kumm made an amazing catch in left field that ended the 4th inning with bases loaded for Creighton. Ben Barta would come into pitch for the 5th and final inning. Ashton would catch a pop out at 3rd base and Dawson Kraft would also catch a pop out at 2nd base. The final out came from a strikeout by the coach pitch. Creighton was able to get 2 more runs in that inning putting the Vikings down by 3. The Vikings tried hard to get a run home but just could not get it done before the 3rd out was gotten by Creighton ending the game with a score of 0-3. The boys played a good game in the heat.

On Thursday night, the softball teams traveled to Crofton. The 5/6 Lady Viking softball team played a good game of fielding the ball and hitting the ball. They girls came out in a tie though. The game was warm but there was shade around the field for the fans to stay cool. The 7/8 Lady Viking softball team played a very tough game too. The Little Lady Vikes were on fire at bat with Burkley Carlson, Hallie Korth, Hayden Mertens, Kingsley Cunningham, Brooklynn Wakeley, Kinsley Thorell, Kali Suhr, Brening Kumm, Lola Clausen, Rory Johnson, Cadence Vaughn and Alianna Perry making it on base. Rory, Kingsley, and Lola even got a double! The girls struggled though getting 3 outs per inning before the run rule per inning would kick in. In the final inning the Little Lady Vikes were down by 2. The Little Lady Vikes were able to get their 3 runs in during the top of the inning, so this meant they had to hold them to take home the win. Kali Suhr was playing pitcher and got the 1st out by throwing to Kinsley Thorell on 1st base. Then a Crofton player hit it into the outfield and was able to advance to 2nd base. Kali came back and got another out as pitcher by throwing to Kinsley on 1st base. At this point Crofton had score 1 run. Kinsley finished out the inning to give the Little Lady Vikings the win by fielding a ground ball at first and tagging the base. The final score was 11-10. The 11/12 Lady Viking softball team came home with a win too with a score of 10-5. During the top of the 1st inning the Lady Vikings scored 5 runs by Lexi Wright, Elle Brazel, Taylor Dawson, Emmie Brazel and Kennedy Gillilan before the run rule kicked in and ended the inning for the Vikings. Kennedy Gillilan pitched for the Vikings, but they were not able to make the 3 outs before Crofton scored their 5 runs. During the top of the 2nd inning, Molly Aitken, Elle Brazel and Taylor Dawson were able to score. Avery Stevens hit a triple and made it home. The Lady Vikings brought home another 5 runs that inning again. Avery pitched the 2nd inning and was able to earn a strikeout and make an out at home with a tag on a steal. The Lady Vikings held the Crofton Warriors and were able to bring home the win. The 13/14 Lady Viking Softball team suffered a tough loss as they score was tied going into the bottom of the final inning. Crofton would get 1 run in to take the win. The 16/18 Lady Vikings would take the field last that evening. The Lady Vikings started out strong by getting 3 runs in the 1st inning. Addi Sporleder, Morgan Kleinschmit and Taylor Alexander would come home. Taylor had a great hit to left field that ended in a triple for her. The Warriors would answer in the bottom of the 1st inning with 4 runs. The Lady Vikings would get 2 more runs the next 2 innings from Charlie Price and Taylor Alexander. Charlie would earn strikeout in the 2nd inning before Jaide Kaiser would come into pitch in the 3rd inning. Jaide would earn 2 strikeouts before Sienna West would come in during the 5th inning to pitch. The Lady Vikings gave up 4 runs to the Warriors in the 4th inning putting them down 6-8 as Peyton Privett would score in the 4th inning. Taylor Privett and Charlie would score again in the 5th inning. The Lady Vikings would go into the final inning tied at 8. The Lady Vikings did not get any runs in so had to hold the Crofton Warriors. Jaide would come back in to pitch for the final inning. The Lady Vikings got 2 outs right away but the 3rd one did not come. Crofton was able to bring 1 run home to end the game. The final score was 8-9. The 11/12 PeeWee and 13/14 Pony baseball teams both suffered losses to Creighton on Thursday night also in Osmond.

The 16/18 Lady Viking Softball team traveled to Ponce Friday night to take on the Ponca 16u team. The Lady Vikings would flip the coin to successfully earn the home team status. Jaide Kaiser would pitch for the full 7 innings against Ponca. The Lady Vikings started out slow by allowing 2 runs in the top for Ponca. The Lady Vikings would not be able to get a run home during the 1st inning. Jaide would get 2 strikeouts in the 2nd inning while Addi Sporleder would catch a pop fly on 3rd base. Taylor Privett would start the 3rd inning with a base hit and during the inning be able to steal her way home to put the Lady Vikings on the scoreboard before the 3rd out was made. Jaide would go in the next 6 innings to earn another 2 strikeouts. The score would stay the same with the Lady Vikings down 1-2 until the 6th inning. Morgan Kleinschmit would hit a base hit and be able to score a run for the Vikings tying up the game. Morgan as catcher would get the 3rd out in the top of the 6th inning as Ponca would try to steal home keeping Ponca scoreless that inning. Time had expired so the game went into sudden death innings. This meant the last batter out in the inning prior would start on 2nd base. The Lady Vikings would allow the runner on 2nd to only make it to 3rd base as the next 3 batters would be outs by the Lady Viking defense on the field. The Lady Vikings would start Christina Martinson on 2nd base. Blair Wakeley was up and has not had a successful bunt all season. The sign was given by the 3rd base coach for her to bunt. The bunt was perfect and allowed Christina to advance to 3rd and put Blair on 1st base. Blair would steal 2nd base in the next couple of pitches to Madison Abbenhaus. Charlie Price would be up to bat with 1 out and Christina on 3rd and Blair on 2nd in scoring positions. Charlie would hit a base hit allowing Christina to steal home to bring home the win for the Lady Vikings. The final score was 3-2 and it was an exciting game! The Lady Vikings would return the next day to take on O’Neill Pride in the morning. Charlie Price would start the game as pitcher. The Vikings would be guest this game and started off very strong with 3 runs scored. Madison Abbenhaus, Peyton Privett and Morgan Kleinschmit would score. Peyton would hit a double and Morgan would hit a triple. O’Neill Pride would answer with 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning. Charlie would earn a strikeout and her defense would earn the other 2 outs. The next inning was a good one for the Lady Vikings as Peyton would hit an in the park home run, followed by Morgan Kleinschmit hitting a double. Runs scored that inning would be 2 for the Lady Vikings. O’Neill Pride would get another 2 runs during the bottom of the 2nd inning. Charlie would end the inning with the 3rd out being a strikeout. The Lady Vikings scoring runs would dry up for the rest of the game, but O’Neill Pride would be able to get 4 more runs in during the 3rd inning. Sienna West would come into pitch during the 3rd inning but not before Charlie would get another strikeout. Sienna would go on to finish the game with 3 more strikeouts before the game was called for time with the Vikings being down 5-8. This would put the Lady Vikings into the Loser bracket to battle back. The Lady Vikings would take on the other O’Neill team in the heat of the afternoon. Jaide Kaiser would start off pitching against the O’Neill Green Machine. The Lady Vikings would win the flip to be home team. O’Neill Green Machine would score 1st bringing home 3 runs the 1st inning. The Lady Vikings would answer with 2 runs. Sienna would come into pitch during the 2nd inning and would hold O’Neill scoreless for the next 4 innings and earn 2 strikeouts. Jaide Kaiser would get on base during the bottom of the 2nd inning and be granted a courtesy runner since she was the pitcher. Blair Wakeley would go into run for her. Taylor Alexander would also get on base. Blair and Taylor would be able to steal their way home to add 2 more runs to the Lady Vikings score. The Lady Vikings led the rest of the game until the 6th and final inning. O’Neill Green Machine would get 2 runs in the before Taylor Privett would catch a pop fly in left field and turn and rocket the ball to 2nd base for a double play. The Vikings would go into the bottom of the 6th inning down by 1. The Lady Vikings would not be able to get a runner home and end their run at District Tournament with a 1-2 record. This put the Lady Vikings at the top of the list for 9th place and earn them a spot a Class D State Tournament in Hastings on July 16-18th.

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