Photo by Jake McNeill: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton catcher Gabe Elton hits a sacrifice fly to drive in the game-winning run during the Knights' Red Rock Conference matchup against Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda, Thursday in Ruthton.

RUTHTON — A well-rounded offensive effort helped the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton baseball team run away with a Red Rock Conference win over Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda Thursday night. Eight different batters recorded at least one hit for the Knights as they cruised to an 11-1 win in five innings.

“[Getting everyone on the basepaths] is huge. That’s what I say when you kind of get in that struggle right now, I just tell them to even if your first two at-bats don’t go right, erase it,” RTR manager Danny Moffitt said. “Go and start from scratch again. Hopefully you get a hit, and don’t think of the past, think of the future.”

The Knights’ capitalized on HLOF’s wild pitching to build up an early lead in the game. Gavin Schreurs was hit by a pitch in RTR’s first at-bat, and walks to Brayden Chandler and Tyler Wichmann loaded the bases.

HLOF put one away with a strikeout, but Kolby Louwagie and Jackson Kerkaert were hit by consecutive pitches to drive in a pair of runs for a 2-1 RTR lead.Gabe Elton then reached on an error to drive in one run, and Tyson Burns reached on another error with two outs to drive in two more for a 5-1 lead.

Chandler led RTR at the plate with a pair of doubles, a walk and two RBIs. Louwagie and Schreurs each also logged a pair of hits, including two RBIs for Louwagie, and three runs scored with a pair of stolen bases for Schreurs.

Each of HLOF’s first two batters of the game were hit by a pitch, and a ground out drove in one of the runners to give the Coyotes the game’s first run.

Kerkaert got the start on the mound for RTR and settled down after hitting the first two batters. He finished the day pitching the first three innings, striking out six batters while giving up one unearned run on three hits with six strikeouts.

“I just told myself that I can’t do that [hit batters], it looks bad, so I just tried to stay focused and tried to hone down on getting it over the plate,” Kerkaert said of his performance on the day. “We put in a lot of work at practice, we work on [pitching and defense] every day … and we’re all connected We know our playstyle and we communicate well, so we know what we’re doing before the play actually happens.

RTR has now strung together four straight wins, holding their opponent to two or fewer runs in three of those four games. The Knights have given up five or more runs just once since April 20.

“I think our attitudes are doing really well. We thought we were going to be pretty good from last year, and the teams around here kind of humbled us up, but we learned from it,” Moffitt said. “We got our batting where we needed it to be since the last time I talked to you, and our attitudes are changing. We’ve been doing different positions, and on the pitching we’ve been getting a loss let walks.”

The Knights countinued to expound on their lead when Parker St. Aubin and Tyson Burns hit consecutive doubles to deep left field, driving in a run. Schreurs singled to shallow left to put runners on the corners, prompting an HLOF pitching change with one out, and a wild pitch pushed across another to bring the Knights’ cushion to six runs.

Brayden Chandler hit a chopper that took a high bounce over the shortstop to score Schreurs on a double before a pair of strikeouts ended the rally with an 8-1 RTR advantage.

Levi Tommeraasen took over for the final pair of innings, striking out five of the seven batters he faced without allowing a hit or a walk.

RTR improves to 10-4 with the win next hosts Lakeview for the second of five consecutive home games on Monday at 4:30 p.m.

BOX SCORE

BATTING

G. Schreurs: 2-3, HBP, 3 R, 2 SB; B. Chandler: 2-3 (2 2B), BB, 2 RBI, R, SB; T. Wichmann: 1-2, BB, HBP, 2 R, SO; L. Tommeraasen: 0-4, R, 3 SO; K. Louwagie: 2-2, 2 HBP, 2 RBI, R; J. Kerkaert: 1-3, HBP, RBI, SO; G. Elton: 1-4, 2 RBI, SO; P. St. Aubin: 1-2 (2B), BB, R, SO; T. Burns: 1-3 (2B), RBI, R.

PITCHING

J. Kerkaert: W, 3 IP, 3 H, R, 6 SO; L. Tommeraasen: 2 IP, 5 SO.