Crowder baseball splits pair in Oklahoma
Feb. 15—The Roughriders took the diamond on Wednesday with a pair of games at Northern Oklahoma College in Enid, Oklahoma.
Crowder began the day with an 11-4 win over Butler Community College (El Dorado, Kansas) and the ended with a 13-10 loss in the nightcap to the host Jets.
After the split, Crowder's record moved to 5-3 on the year.
CROWDER 11, BUTLER 4
The Roughriders were led offensively by Houston King who had a three-hit day. King had three singles, three RBIs and even added a stolen base to his performance. Noah Smallwood picked up three hits as well for Crowder in four at bats. Smallwood finished with two doubles and a single, drove in one run and crossed the plate once himself in the win.
Leading the way in runs scored for Crowder were four players with two each. Those were: Joey Morton, Ethan Fender, Kolton Reynolds and Tyler Favretto.
The seven-inning game was scoreless after two innings of play. In the top of the third, the Roughriders struck for a five-run inning. They added three more in the fourth and gave starting pitcher Austin Jobe a comfortable 8-0 cushion.
The Grizzlies responded in the home half of the fourth with a run. In the fifth, they got to Jobe and forced Head Coach Travis Lallemand to make a change. The Grizzlies scored three in the fifth to make it 8-4. All four runs from Butler were charged to Jobe.
The starter's final line was: 4 2/3 innings, six hits, four earned runs, five strikeouts and one home run allowed to pick up the win.
The bullpen slammed the door as it collectively allowed just one hit and walked two batters across 2 1/3 innings of work. Five of its seven outs recorded were strikeouts. Seth Adams (1 1/3) walked two and struck out two. Landon Grigg (1) allowed one hit and got a strikeout for all three outs in his one inning.
Crowder added three more runs in the sixth inning. Butler used Izack Tiger as its starter. Of the seven runs scored on Tiger, only three were earned. The Grizzlies sent four different pitchers to the mound in the game.
NOC-ENID 13, CROWDER 10
The finale saw eight pitchers total in a seven-inning game. Crowder threw five of those pitchers and none of which recorded more than seven outs.
The Roughriders started the scoring with a run in the top of the first. That lead didn't hold long.
Northern Oklahoma College tallied three runs in the bottom of the first on Roughrider Riely Hunsaker. Hunsaker came back out for the second inning but couldn't record an out as the Jets ended up adding five more before Rhett Richardson was able to stop the bleeding.
Crowder faced an 8-1 hole early on and were looking at a 12-1 deficit before it started a comeback.
Three runs crossed for the visitors in the fifth inning to make it 12-4. A run in the bottom of the inning put NOC up 13-4. Crowder fought back again with four runs in the sixth to make it 13-8. The pitching threw its first scoreless frame of the game in the home half of the sixth to keep the score the same. The offense couldn't muster enough hits to complete the comeback as they only plated two in the final frame.
Hunsaker picked up the loss. Nick Potter recorded two outs after Richardson left the game. Then, Logan Thomas went 2 1/3 innings and combined with Karsen Richard for the scoreless sixth inning.
