The Gehlen Catholic baseball team is one of the hottest teams in the area as they picked up their seventh win in a row with a 12-1 victory over Trinity Christian in five innings.
The Jays started off with a run in the bottom of the first inning sparked by a leadoff triple from Dylan Lehmann to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. Zayne Weiland drove him in on a ground out. The Jays got another leadoff triple in the top half of the second inning from Derek Von Arb and it looked like Trinity Christian would work around it as Trinity Christian’s Anthony Kooiker struck out the next two batters. Connor Kraft then stepped up and hit a fly ball to center field that fell in between two Tigers who miscommunicated about the play. That scored Von Arb and allowed two more runs to score in the inning. It was another situation that Head Coach Kirk Kronaizl was happy to see his team capitalize on.
The Jays picked up the bottom of the third where they left off the second by hitting a solo home run off the bat of Ryan Livermore. They followed that up with three more runs including another on a base hit from Tray-gen Kramer.
Trinity Christian had a response in the top of the fourth inning by putting up a run thanks to a triple from Anthony Kooiker and an infield single from Colton Kuiper. That was all the Tigers could put together on the offensive end as those were their only two hits and only run scored in the game. The Jays came up in the bottom of the fourth inning, loaded the bases, and hit them all in on this swing from Connor Kraft.
Ryan Livermore sat the Tigers down in order in the top of the fifth to force the mercy rule and win Gehlen’s seventh game in a row. The Jays had five extra base hits in the win over Trinity Christian and Coach Kronaizl attributes that to solid contact and speed from his team.
Connor Kraft was the star hitting the grand slam and driving in five runs for the Jays. Those moments are what makes baseball fun for Coach Kronaizl.
The Jays start a stretch in which they play three games in three days starting tonight at home against Sioux Central. Even after hitting over .400 as an offense over the winning streak, Coach Kronaizl wants his team to focus on their pitching over the next few games.
The Jays record sits at 11-5 and 3-2 in the War Eagle Conference.
Monday Final Scores:
Baseball:
War Eagle Conference:
#4 Remsen St. Mary’s 18 Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 1
Akron-Westfield 10 Harris-Lake Park 0
West Sioux 12 MMCRU 0
Hinton 10 South O’Brien 1
Western Valley Conference:
#3 Kingsley-Pierson 12 Ridge View 1
Missouri Valley 16 Westwood 11
Lawton-Bronson 12 River Valley 2
MVAOCOU 8 OABCIG 3
Softball:
War Eagle Conference:
Gehlen Catholic 6 Trinity Christian 0
#7 Akron-Westfield 12 Harris-Lake Park 0
South O’Brien 2 Hinton 1
West Sioux 6 MMCRU 5
Western Valley Conference:
#11 Ridge View 7 Kingsley-Pierson 4
#12 West Monona 5 Woodbury Central 4
River Valley 7 Lawton-Bronson 1
Missouri Valley 4 Westwood 3
MVAOCOU 15 OABCIG 3
