(Griswold) Colin Mullenix went 4-4, Grant Sturm, 3-4, and Brendan Atkinson and Brody O’Brien drilled critical hits to lead Atlantic over Creston 11-1, in a Hawkeye Ten Conference baseball game at Griswold on Thursday night.
The Trojans scored 11 runs on 15 hits. “The guys had good approaches at the plate,” said Atlantic Head Coach Joe Brummer. “We hit the ball hard and hit to the opposite field on several occasions. The kids squared it up and did a great job.”
Lane Nelson put together a solid pitching performance. The sophomore pitched all five innings allowing one run on six hits. “Lane Nelson did a great job on the mound for us,” said Brummer. “He threw strikes, forced ground balls, and pop-ups, except for a couple of errors, the defense played well behind him.”
Atlantic set the tone in the first inning. The home team came up with a bases-loaded double play to escape unscathed and answered with three runs on five hits in the bottom of the frame. Grant Sturm led off with a single; Colin Mullenix drilled one up the middle and pushed Sturm the third. Mullenix stole second, and Brendan Atkinson smacked a two-RBI double to vault the home team to a 2-0 lead. Brodie O’Brien added to the cause with an RBI single to push the Trojans to a 3-0 edge.
The Panthers plated one run in the top of the third. However, the Trojans kept the visitors at arms link with another run in their side of the frame to extend their lead to 4-1.
The Trojans all but shut the door on the Panthers in the bottom of the fourth. The home squad scored six runs on six hits and sent 11 batters to the plate. Colin Mullenix led off with a single and drove in a run in his second turn at-bat in the same inning. Four others had a hand in the landslide. Grant Sturm, Gunner Kirchhoff, Ethan Sturm, and Garrett McLaren each had singles, and the Trojans blasted out to a 10-1 lead. Brodie O’Brien scored the winning run on Garrett McLaren’s ground ball in the bottom of the fifth inning to seal the 11-1 win.
Mullenix went 4-4 with two RBI, Sturm drilled three singles and one RBI, and O’Brien went 2-4, with a triple and two RBI. Atkinson stroked a two-RBI double, and Garrett McLaren, laced two hits, Ethan Sturm singled twice, and Gunner Kirchhoff finished the night with a single.
Tristan Barncastle and Cole Strider finished with one hit each. Gavin Shawler took the loss on the mound for the Panthers.
The Trojans move to 3-6 in conference play and 3-7 overall. Creston falls to 3-5 in the conference and 3-6 in all games.
