Oskaloosa Powers Past Ottumwa For Season Opening Win
by Jamie Brockman
Despite graduating five key seniors from last season, and longtime Assistant Coach Bill Almond taking over as Head Coach, the Oskaloosa baseball team showed some inexperience at times but also showed big potential handling Ottumwa in the season opener for both teams 10-2 Thursday night.
Ottumwa took the early lead sending six batters to the plate in the first inning. Oskaloosa starting pitcher Rian Yates (Sr.) walked Colton Mckinnon to start the game; then with two outs, Logan Chickering drove an RBI double to deep left field scoring Mckinnon to give the Bulldogs an early 1-0 lead. Oskaloosa answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Wyatt Krier drew a leadoff walk, Tyler Miller also walked but was thrown out attempting to steal second base. With two outs Cole Kraber stepped up and hit a towering two-run home run to left field putting the Indians ahead 2-1 after one inning.
Oskaloosa plated three more runs in the second inning on an RBI single from Krier and a two-RBI double from Yates to take a 5-1 lead. Ottumwa cut into the lead scoring a run in the third inning taking advantage of an error, a walk, and a couple of fielders choices.
The Indians got another run in both the fourth and fifth innings on a sacrifice fly RBI from Krier and an RBI single from Charlie North to grab 7-2 lead then put the finishing touches on with three more runs in the sixth inning off four straight singles from Yates, Miller, Kraber and Will Schultz for the 10-2 win.
At the plate, Oskaloosa scored ten runs on seven hits, while Ottumwa tallied two runs off four hits and two Osky errors. Krier went 1-3 with a walk, RBI and scored two runs, while Yates went 2-4 with 2 RBI and scored a run. Miller was 1-2 with two walks, a stolen base and scored two runs. Kraber was hot going 2-4 with three RBI and scored two runs and Will Schultz finished up 1-3 with a walk and an RBI. Butler was 0-1 but drew three walks and scored a run, while North was 1-4 with 2 RBI, Nic Dykstra didn’t have a hit but was very active as he reached base three times scoring two runs. Dykstra was twice hit by a pitch and once on a strike three that got away from the catcher allowing him to reach base, and Ethan Christ was 0-2 with a walk.
Yates got the win despite throwing 72 pitches in his three innings of work. He allowed two runs on three hits while walking four batters and striking out five. Colton Butler was fantastic in relief throwing four strong innings facing just 16 batters and allowing only one hit, a one-out single in the seventh, and no runs. He walked two batters while striking out six. ‘
For first-year Head Coach Bill Almond this marked his first win as the Indians Head Coach. Oskaloosa starts 1-0 in 2019 and travels to Winterset Friday for a JV/varsity doubleheader starting at 5:30 pm, then returns home Tuesday to host Grinnell.
