Pirates struggle to get outs in first two outings
GILMAN BASEBALL
It hasn’t been the easiest of starts for the Gilman baseball team, who fell to 0-2 Tuesday with a 12-1 Eastern Cloverbelt Conference loss at Spencer.
The Pirates, who have been hampered by an inability to get much practice time outside while breaking in some youthful players to the varsity level, didn’t get much going in their second road game against a team looking like a conference championship contender in the season’s early going.
The Rockets, now 2-0 in league play and 5-2 overall, scored three runs in each of their four at-bats to put the 10-run rule into play in the fifth inning. That’s where Gilman got its lone run, getting an RBI double from Grady Kroeplin.
Dalton Wisocky got the start on the mound for the Pirates and struck out two and walked five in two innings. Dawson Robinson finished up, getting a couple of punchouts and walking two. A couple of errors also hurt the Pirates.
Reed Knecht led Spencer’s nine-hit attack by going three for three with three runs scored and three runs driven in. Carter Loepke held Gilman scoreless over the first three innings to pick up the win.
This game was originally set to by played in Gilman, but the sites for the teams’ conference games were switched last week. Gilman will now host the second matchup on May 11. The Pirates look to have better luck today, Thursday, when they host Loyal, a team that has also struggled out of the gates, at 5 p.m. Gilman hosts Greenwood in a rescheduled game Monday, hosts Neillsville Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. and hosts Owen-Withee on May 4.
Warriors 16, Pirates 2
In the April 14 season opener, the Pirates faced a Neillsville team that already had four games in and averaged 12 runs a game in those first four contests. The host Warriors kept rolling offensively with a 16-2, fiveinning win over the Pirates.
Neillsville scored five runs in each of the first three innings before Gilman’s most successful pitcher of the day, Robinson, held the Warriors to a single run in the bottom of the fourth.
Gilman got two hits off three Neillsville pitchers and scored their runs in the top of the second to pull within 5-2. Talyn Podolak drew a leadoff walk from the Warriors’ starter Gavin Barth and Adam Draeger singled to right. The runners moved up on a groundout by Alex Copenhaver. Trevor Vick’s walk loaded the bases and Wyatt Webster’s walk drove in a run. After Sam Hayes relieved Barth, a groundout by Joey Syryczuk drove in Draeger with the Pirates’ second run.
Kroeplin doubled down the leftfield line with two down in the fifth for Gilman’s final hit. That came off Bryce Erickson, who pitched a scoreless last inning for the Warriors.
Number-seven hitter Andrew Hoeser had a big day at the plate for Neillsville, going three for three with five RBIs. He had two-run singles in each of the first two innings. The Warriors had eight hits and drew nine walks from Gilman’s pitchers, who also hit three batters. Erickson was two for two with a double and two runs driven in.
Kroeplin got the start on the mound for Gilman and got one out while facing six batters. He was responsible for all five first-inning runs. Wisocky went two innings and allowed 10 runs and four hits. He struck out two batters. Robinson got the last four outs on two hits and struck out two.
