On Wednesday, May 31, Wagner’s Post 11 Senior Legion baseball team traveled to Parkston to partake in their first game of the year.

Carter Cournoyer got the nod on the mound and he would help start the season off on the right foot as he would complete four innings giving up two runs, one of which was earned, on four hits while walking four and striking out three as Wagner would win by a 12-2 count.

Matt Link came on to finish things out in the top of the fifth as he stranded two inherited runners. Matt faced four batters in his lone inning. He struck out one and walked one.

Offensively we didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball as we would collect only five hits. How-ever, we would use 11 walks and three errors to our advantage in scoring the 12 runs. Corbin Carda had the big hit of the night. With Wagner holding a comfortable 8-2 lead Carda laced a two-out, bases loaded double into the left-center field gap which would put the game on ice.

Carter Cournoyer also helped his cause with an RBI single on the night. Joey Cournoyer, Ted Slaba, and Christian Doom would have the other hits for Wagner. Frank Soukup, Carlin Hopkins, and Link all had an RBI via a bases loaded walk.

The following night, June 1, was the home opener for Wagner’s legion team as we would host Winner.

Link was handed the ball in this one and he was sharp. He would go seven innings giving up two unearned runs on two hits, five walks, and one hit batsman, while striking out eleven.

Wagner collected eight hits on the night. Link and Camden Roth would get two apiece with one of Roth’s being a double. Carda, Slaba, Doom, and Carter Cournoyer would each collect a hit with Slaba’s being a double. Carter collected two RBI for the game with Javian Pesicka getting credit for one run knocked in.

Winner scored one unearned run in the first to take the early lead. Wagner would score on Carter’s RBI groundout in the third to even things out and then add one in the fourth with Slaba scoring on Pesicka’s groundout to take the lead.

Link was cruising along until the sixth. A two out walk followed by two errors on the same play allowed Winner to knot things up. Both teams would go down in order in the seventh and we were off to extra innings.

Link would have to leave the mound due to pitch count rules and Slaba would take over. An uncharacteristic four pitch walk set things in motion. That was followed by an infield single and then a perfectly placed bunt single to load the bases. Then a couple of errors would wind up giving Winner three runs in the top of eighth, all without a ball leaving the infield.

Wagner would score one run in the final inning but ended up falling to the visiting Warriors by a 5-3 count.