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PREP BASEBALL: Sting bounces back with 12-2 victory over Lancers

Photo by Jake Przytarski YME’s Bennett Knapper delivers a pitch during their game against Canby on Monday. The Sting defeated the Lancers 12-2 in six innings.

GRANITE FALLS - Fresh off a hard-fought one-run loss at the hands of Redwood Valley, the Yellow Medicine East baseball team found its way back in the win column on Monday with an impressive offensive display that resulted in a 12-2 win over the visiting Canby Lancers.

After struggling to put the ball in play in their previous outings, Monday’s 10-hit outburst was an encouraging sign for YME coach Trevor Schulte.

“We were able to put the ball in play today. We’ve kind of struggled with that lately of hitting the ball hard and making some solid contact,” said coach Schulte. “We were finally able to get our foundation back here and start to put the ball in play, that really helped us.”

After a scoreless opening frame by starting pitcher Bennett Knapper, the Sting wasted little time finding their rhythm offensively as senior Tate Schulte picked up the team’s first hit to advance Ethan Peterson who reached on a walk. Batting clean-up, Angel Jimenez picked up his first of two RBI’s for the game with a hard-hit single to drive in Peterson. Before the final out was tallied, Carter Sneller picked up an RBI with a ground out to score Schulte and push the lead to 2-0.

In the top of the third inning, the Lancers scored their first and only runs of the ballgame which was set in motion by Nolan Harding reaching first on a walk with two outs. After stealing second base, Harding tried for third and was waved home after an errant throw sailed over the third baseman’s head to make it 2-1. Another YME error would bring another run home to even the score at two through three innings.

Coach Schulte attributes the error-laden inning and game to a lack of fielding ground balls outside after having been forced inside for practice due to the weather.

“We’ve got work to do. We’ve kicked the ball around a lot here in the last week and a half and I think a lot of it has to do (with the fact that) we haven’t taken a lot of ground balls on the field,” said coach Schulte. “A lot of our ground balls have been inside. We’ve only practiced outside I think two or three times this year. We’ve played more games than we’ve practiced outside so we gotta get out where we can take balls off of regular field and be able to handle some hops.”

YME would do its best to put the sloppy inning behind them in the fourth thanks to an RBI single by Ty Schulte to make it at 3-2. Following an error in the field by the Lancers in the following inning, Ty Schulte stepped up to the plate again in the fifth and delivered for the Sting with a two-RBI single to make it 6-2.

After five innings pitched, Lancers starting pitcher Evan Stoks handed the ball off to Dylan Bruns in the sixth inning. Bruns remained on the mound until the game’s conclusion when the Sting pushed the lead to 12-2 after scoring six more runs.

Though the result wasn’t the one that they had hoped for, Canby coach Ryan Arndt hopes that his team get back on track in their next contest against Ortonville today in spite of dealing with some lingering injuries in the lineup.

“We’ve got some injuries that we’re dealing with right now that we have to be able to cover up and put some guys in different spots and so we have to figure that out,” said Arndt. “We have a game tomorrow (Tuesday) but we have to figure out how we’re going to put people in the right spots.”

Coach Schulte wants his team to clean up some of the mistakes they made in the field, and continue to build off of their success in order to build confidence and momentum moving forward.

“We see what we have to get better at and and we just have to keep doing what we’re doing and build some confidence here and now just kind of start to get on a roll,” said coach Schulte.

“Baseball is all about getting on a roll and once you can get on a roll and start feeling pretty good and feeling pretty confident, things can get going for you. We’ve got that chance now where we’re starting to feel pretty good about ourselves.”

Yellow Medicine East 12, Canby 2

Canby 002 000 — 2 3 1

YME 200 136 — 12 10 5

HITTING: YME (Knapper 1-4, run; Tate Schulte 2-3, 3 runs; Jimenez 2-4 2 RBI, 2 runs; Sneller 1-3, RBI, run; Ty Schulte 2-4 4 RBI; Fischer 1-2, run; Martin 1-2, run); Canby (Harding 1-2, run; Greenman 1-3, run; Bruns 1-3).

PITCHING (IP-R-ER-H-BB-SO): YME (Knapper 6-2-1-3-2-9); Canby (Stoks 5-6-3-7-2-4; Bruns 0.2-6-5-3-2-1).

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