Osky Boys Pick Up Huge Road Win
Oskaloosa Indians
Oskaloosa, Iowa – There is an old baseball saying that ‘you’re only as good as the next play, you need to have a short memory’ and that is what the Indians decided to do after they lost the season opener on Monday. They showed up Thursday night at Martinsdale Saint Mary’s, who happens to be a storied baseball program in the nation, they fought and clawed and came out with a 6-5 victory in 8 innings.
Osky gave the ball to Junior-TJ Boyle and he went to work against the Saints after a fairly quick top of the first inning for Osky. Boyle found himself in some early trouble as MSTM scored two runs in the bottom of the first on a double by Eddy Kraber and the Saints lead 2-0.
Osky answered back in the bottom of the second inning as Freshman-Bennett Spry singled and Senior Nick Rutledge doubled, bringing Spry home. Osky trailed 2-1. Osky then tied the game up at 2 in the third inning as Junior-Mitchell Schaffner led off the inning with a single, Boyle drew the walk and Schaffner scored on a RBI groundout by Junior-Colton Swanson. The game was tied for all of 5 min. as MSTM answered in the bottom of the third inning, as they had a RBI single and they went up 3-2.
Boyle was grinding away and getting out of some tight jams. He did just that in the fourth inning as he got out of a bases loaded jam by making some huge pitches and got some nice defense by the Indians, keeping the score at 3-2. Osky was trying to plug away through the middle innings but stranded some base runners as Schaffner continued his hot hitting early season by nailing another single. The hard work and gritty pitching from Boyle continued as he got out of another jam.
Rutledge came on in relief of Boyle and MTSM strung together some timely hits and scored two more runs in the bottom of the 6th, putting the score at 5-2 heading into the Indians last at bat. With the top of the order coming up, Osky was where they wanted to be…so they got to work. Rutledge was hit by a pitch, a fly out to center brought up Schaffner, who battled in his at bat single. A wild pitch advanced the two runners to second and third when Boyle had an RBI single, which brought the Indians closer now, 5-3. Freshman-Jason Bebee pinch ran for Boyle and stole second. Osky now had runners on second and third, with still only one out. Swanson walked to load the bases and Junior-Nate VanVeldhuizen was hit by pitch, allowing him to take the base and bringing in one of our runners. Now the Indians were only down one run 5-4. Senior-Travis Gile then grounded out to drive in the tying run at 5-5.
Rutledge shut down MTSM in the bottom of the 7th and that set up the dramatics in the 8th. Spry walked then stole second. Schaffner reached base on a walk and Boyle got hit by pitch, which loaded the bases. With two outs, Swanson hit a hard line drive to drive in the run and Osky finally led 6-5. Rutledge was dominate in the 8th inning and closed the game out for the Indian victory.
Coach Gingrich was very pleased with the way the boys battled and performed throughout the game. “I felt we had some very, very good at bats during the game, but we really worked the pitcher over the last couple innings,” Gingrich said. He also felt that Rutledge and Boyle did a great job of blocking balls while catching and that was huge for the team. It was a great win on the road against a very good baseball team.
Osky is in action Friday night as they travel to Eddyville for a JV/V double header. With the win the Indians even their record at 1-1.
