Wagner’s 14U VFW Post 7319 teeners hosted the nine from Scotland-Menno on Wednesday, June 11, and went down in defeat by a score of 14-10.

Cooper Slaba started on the mound and couldn’t get out of the first inning. He pitched 2/3 of that frame and allowed five runs, two of which were earned, on one hit, two walks, and two hit batters. Wagner found themselves down by a score of 5-0 after the top of the opening inning. They would answer back with two runs of their own in the bottom half, however. They used a couple of singles by Colton Zephier and Connor Gabel as well as an error and some wild pitches to get their tallies.

Tyler Ronfeldt came in to relieve Slaba in the first and went on to pitch the next two innings admirably. He only gave up one earned run on three hits and a walk while striking out one.

Scotland scored a run in the 2nd inning while Wagner got one in the 3rd as Zephier scored on a groundout by Cooper Gene Kuhlman.

Austin DeVries pitched the 4th inning and didn’t allow a hit but walked three, hit one, and struck out one. Two runs scored on his watch, though only one was earned.

The Wagner offense would then come alive as they added four runs in the fourth, one in the fifth, and two in the sixth to take a 10-8 lead. Landon Ronfeldt doubled to lead off the fourth and Mason Milk promptly advanced him to third on a single. Alex Reiter then walked. Zephier and Ethan Gabel hit back to back singles after a fielder’s choice. Some more walks and wild pitches allowed the other runs to score. In the 5th, a single, walk, and error brought home Milk. While in the 6th Landon Ronfeldt had a big two-out hit to drive in a run and Jacob Kotab would score on an error.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t make that two run lead stand as Scotland-Menno started the inning with three straight hits including a triple. Zephier had pitched two scoreless frames before the seventh but the S-M bats caught up to him here. Connor Gabel came on to retire three of the seven batters he faced and after the dust settled the visitors had their 14-10 lead.

Wagner then went quietly in the seventh to end the game.

Offensively for Wagner, Landon Ronfeldt had the big bat of the night as he had three hits and two RBI while scoring one run. Milk and Zephier had two hits apiece with Zephier getting an RBI and scoring three times. Milk would also score a run. The brothers Gabel also had one hit each with Ethan scoring a run and Connor driving two in. Kuhlman, Reiter, and Kotab both walked twice and scored a run. Jackson Woods also scored a run to round out the scoring for Wagner.

Photos by Jan Martin.