Waconia, Minn. – The pre-game festivities got things started off on an emotional note on Friday night as the Crown baseball team celebrated senior night by honoring seniors
Josh Flanders,
Daryl Taylor, and
Joey Kostelny. The night ended with a different type of emotion, as for the second time in a week Crown used an extra inning home run to win on the last pitch of the game.
Game one against the North Central rams featured seniors Flanders, Taylor, and Kostelny all in the starting lineup, and all making an impact on the game.
Kostelny, whose career has been marked by injuries, was 0-4 lifetime entering Friday night's opener and promptly delivered an RBI single in his first at bat to give Crown a 1-0 lead. He would later score on a two RBI single from Taylor and Crown never looked back.
Flanders earned an emotional win, pitching 6.2 innings before being removed to a standing ovation with one out to go. The senior earned his eighth career victory by allowing just five hits and two runs with three strikeouts.
Kostelny delivered another RBI single in the sixth and Taylor finished 2-3 with a run and a team high four RBI as Crown won 13-3. Six different players recorded two hits in the victory.
Game two started as a continued celebration, but quickly turned into a dog fight.
Tanner Pruett got the start and was electric through four, striking out seven Rams without allowing a hit. Crown scored four times in the first four frames and held a 4-0 lead.
The fifth inning was a different story, however, as Pruett's control failed him and the left hander walked four of the first five batters of the inning before allowing a two RBI single for the first Rams hit of the game.
Pruett gave way to freshman
Alex Smothers with two on and the game tied at 4-4.
Crown didn't do themselves any favors as the inning continued with a bizarre sequence of events that included just one hit.
After the first batter singled off Smothers, the sequence went error, wild pitch, walk, hit by pitch, two straight swinging strikeouts, error, passed ball. Finally, Smothers induced a groundout to end the inning, but not before the Rams had scored 10 times in the inning to take a commanding 10-4 lead.
Just as quickly as things turned south in the top half, Crown fought back in the bottom of the frame.
A single, error, and walk, allowed Crown to load the bases, but a fielder's choice and pop up allowed North Central to keep the Storm off the scoreboard.
With two outs, Crown got clutch, starting with a
Kress Medina single through the left side that scored two runs. Taylor followed with a pinch-hit RBI single and
Harry Ballantyne walked to re-load the bases.
Seth Herdle then delivered two more runs with a single up the middle. He and Ballantyne completed a double steal and
David Cruz walked to load the bases again with two outs.
Gideon Dunn then had an RBI infield single to tie things at 10-10 before
David Sherwood struck out to end the inning.
The two teams combined for two scoreless innings and the game went to extras. Smothers found a rhythm after the fifth and mowed down six Rams hitters by strikeout over four innings of work.
That scoreless streak set up the game ending dramatics as
Gideon Dunn stepped up to lead off the bottom of the eighth. The freshman, who was already 2-4 on the day, crushed a pitch over the left field wall to walk things off for the second time in a week and send Crown to an 11-10 win.
Smothers earned the win in relief by allowing just one earned run over four innings. The hero Dunn was 3-5 and just a double shy of the cycle with three RBI. Ballantyne set a single game record with four stolen bases and reached base five times with three runs scored.
The wins improved Crown's season record to 15-17 heading into the final series of the season against St. Scholastica.
