The Crete Stop ‘N Shop Seniors’ baseball team started off the week with back-to-back home losses, dropping its first game of the week 11-1 to Seward on June 6 and 15-9 to ETC on June 7.
Against Seward, Crete struggled to get anything going, only mustering three hits on the night with two coming from Carson Kotil.
In the first three innings, Crete held Seward to one run, but the Bluejays found their rhythm in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, scoring 10 runs to put the game away.
Reece Vertin struck out five Bluejays.
Crete then played a closer game, but still couldn’t get the win over ETC as they struggled to slow down the Knights’ bats.
After a relatively slow start on offense, both teams exploded in the fourth inning, scoring five runs each. ETC was able to continue its offensive explosion, scoring three runs in the fifth and seventh innings each while Crete was only able to score one more.
Alex Eltze struck out five and Nick Wendt four.
Crete then hosted the Tom Stallard tournament on June 10 and 11 and went 1-3 over the two days, defeating Legion Post 101 5-3 on June 11 in the final game of the day, but falling to Jordan’s Studio Post 331 9-0 and Lincoln Lutheran 11-5 on June 10 and to Malcolm 7-3 on June 11.
Against Jordan’s Studio, Crete allowed nine runs in four innings to end the game in the top of the fifth. Wendt struck out four.
Against both Lincoln Lutheran and Malcolm, the games played out the same as the Warriors and Clippers gained early leads and the Cardinals weren’t able to get back into it.
After losing 10 games in a row, the Cardinals finally got a much-needed win after holding on to an early lead.
At the top of the third, Tadd TeBrink blasted a hit to left field and drove in Eltze to get the Cardinals on the board.
After that, Everett Heath hit a ground ball to left field to drive in two runs to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
After two runs scored by Post 101, Crete’s Eltze drove in Triston Lenhoff and Cole Stutzman to give the Cardinals a 5-2 lead at the end of the sixth inning, which would be enough to win.
TeBrink hit two doubles on the day and both Eltze and Heath drove in two runs.
Crete (2-13) was scheduled to host Auburn on June 12 and play at Hickman on June 13.
