By looking at the final box score, it would appear that the Newell-Fonda Mustangs skated their way to capture their 24th overall win, but they actually trailed in the game. The Mustangs defeated the Titans 12-2 in six innings. These two teams matched up 11 days ago (June 15th), when it was Newell-Fonda shutting out GTRA. In last night’s game, GTRA got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning, thanks to a two-run home run from first baseman Ally Hanson. Myla Murphy came in to score off the homer after she led the inning with a walk from opposing pitcher Anna Mercer.
Titans Pitcher, Addy Rutter, and the GTRA defense were looking stellar through the first couple of innings. Rutter had one strikeout through the first two innings, and several groundouts led to quick plays, including a one-two-three inning in the top of the second. However, when Newell-Fonda batted again in the third inning, that is where they did damage to burst the game wide open.
Isabel Bartek started off the inning with a bunt that came back to Rutter and she threw to first baseman Hanson for the first out of the inning. After that, Mary Walker and Mia Walker reached first base on singles. Emma Erickson followed up with an RBI Single, scoring Mary Walker for the first run for Newell-Fonda. Mia Walker scored quickly afterward from a Bunt RBI from Pitcher Anna Mercer to tie the game at two. McKenna Sievers added a bunt RBI to score Erickson, giving the Mustangs its first lead of the game (3-2).
Kinzee Hinders was walked to load the bases. A base hit from Greta Larson got Mercer to the plate for a 4-2 advantage for the Mustangs. Rutter then walked Jaicee Vanderhoff to load up the bases once again for Newell-Fonda. Bartek flew out the Short Stop (Madisen Fay) for the second out of the inning. The Mustangs weren’t done scoring as Mary Walker returned for an RBI Double, which scored Sievers, Hinders, and Larson for a 7-2 lead. Mia Walker followed with a double, getting in both Vanderhoff and Mary Walker for the 9-2 third-inning lead. The Mustangs had seven hits in the inning.
Mary Walker had a triple in the fifth inning and later scored her third run of the game, finishing 3-5 on the night. Mia Walker was 4-4 with three singles, a double, and a run scored. The Mustangs tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning from Sievers and Hinders to give them the 12-2 lead. After not allowing a run across in the bottom half of the inning, the game came to an end due to the 10-run rule.
The winning pitcher was Anna Mercer (8-3) who finished with 73 pitches, four walks, and three strikeouts. GTRA’s Rutter (3-3) threw 56 total pitches with four walks and one strikeout. Newell-Fonda completes the season sweep over the Titans and now leads the overall series (8-1).
Newell-Fonda improves to 24-7 on the year and will be back home hosting Exira-EHK tomorrow, Tuesday, June 27th (7 pm varsity) and GTRA drops to 12-12 with a matchup vs. Hartley-Marvin-Sanborn tomorrow for Senior Night (7 pm varsity).
