On Wednesday, June 25, the VFW Post 7319 14U teeners played host to Parkston for two games at Hennies Field.

In the first game Parkston used a walk, an error, a single, and a wild pitch to score twice and gain the early lead. Wagner would answer back in the 2nd as they scored two runs without the benefit of a hit as Connor Gabel, Jackson Woods, and Ruger Loeffler drew three straight walks with Gabel and Woods eventually scoring on wild pitches to tie the game at two.

Parkston added a run in the 3rd and five in the 5th to push their lead to 8-2 and that wound up being the final score of the first game.

Jacob Kotab was the starting pitcher. He threw three innings giving up three runs with one being earned. He allowed two hits, two walks, two hit batters, and he struck out two. Tyler Ronfeldt pitched one inning of relief. He allowed five earned runs on three hits and three walks while hitting one batter and striking one out. Austin DeVries also pitched an inning. He faced the minimum, striking out one batter.

There wasn’t much happening on the base paths outside of the 2nd inning as the only hit for Wagner was by Ethan Gabel, a nicely placed bunt single.

In game two Landon Ronfeldt took the ball and lasted three innings. He allowed six runs, five of which were earned. He only gave up two hits but he walked six and hit one. Cooper Slaba entered in relief and finished the game. He gave up zero runs and walked one batter in his two innings of work.

Things didn’t go much better at the dish in this game for Wagner as we could only scrounge out three hits, those by Mason Milk, Woods, and Tyler Ronfeldt. Milk scored a run and drove a run in. Woods would drive one in and Ronfeldt scored a run.

The 4th inning was the deciding one as Parkston broke a 3-3 tie and scored thrice, using two walks and three singles to get their runs. They would hold on to win by a final count of 6-4.

The name of the game, especially at this level, is to throw strikes. The boys are finding out that things tend to go south when we start issuing walks. Offensively, we were called out looking on strikes ten times in two games, which is waaaaay too many. We need to start heading to the plate with the mindset that we are going to hit the baseball and not hope for a walk.