Mad Dogs get plenty of offense to beat Delmont
The Mitchell Mad Dogs showed off their offensive prowess Thursday night at Cadwell Park. And they needed it.By: Travis Mester, The Daily Republic
- At the plate
- VanOverschelde
The Mitchell Mad Dogs showed off their offensive prowess Thursday night at Cadwell Park.
And they needed it.
Beau VanOverschelde, Trevor Salmonson and Cade Hearnen each homered as the Mad Dogs won a shootout 22-12 over Delmont in seven innings in Mitchell’s final Sunshine League amateur baseball game of the summer.
“Offensively, it’s fun to play in games like that,” said VanOverschelde, who hit a three-run homer in the third inning. “But defensively, it (stinks).”
VanOverschelde finished 2-for-3 with a triple, a three-run homer and scored three times from his leadoff position. He sent a 3-1 Tom Heisinger offering deep over the left-field fence.
“I was just looking for a fastball middle-in,” VanOverschelde said. “And that’s what he threw.”
Hearnen drove in four runs, including a two-run homer that ended the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Brett Young had a double, a pair of singles and scored four runs, while Salmonson finished 2-for-4 with a two-run homer in the fourth inning.
As good as the Mad Dogs’ offense was, both their pitching and defense were quite the contrary.
But they weren’t alone.
The starting pitchers on each team had a hard time stringing together outs. And their defenses didn’t give them much help as the teams combined for eight errors.
“We’ll take that many runs every night,” Mitchell’s Jason Skinner said. “But we just have to come more ready to play. We had way too many mental errors (Thursday), and we’re lucky it didn’t hurt us, because it definitely could have.”
Heisinger was hit hard up and down the Mitchell lineup before being relieved, while Rich Wiese allowed 10 runs in 3.1 innings of work for the Mad Dogs. Wiese allowed only five hits, but he walked two batters, hit two more and had to work around four Mad Dog errors.
“Giving up free bases is the biggest thing for us,” VanOverschelde said. “When they put it in play, we need to make the plays.”
Delmont led 12-8 after three and a half innings of action, but Mitchell’s Alex Loes pitched well in relief to give the Mad Dogs’ bats a chance.
Loes picked up the win, throwing 3.2 innings and giving up two runs on four hits. He struck out the final four batters he faced before Mitchell scored six runs in the seventh to end the game early.
“I have to give (Loes) a lot of credit because he hasn’t pitched in a while,” Skinner said. “He really showed up big for us (Thursday).”
Big innings were the name of the game for both teams Thursday night.
Delmont scored four times in the second inning and tallied six runs in the fourth. Mitchell scored four times each in the first, third, fourth and sixth innings to go along with its six-run seventh.
Delmont center fielder Cassius Kocer had a single, a double and scored three times to lead the way for the visitors.
Mitchell’s next action will come when it travels to Sioux Falls to face the Saints Sunday at Harmondon Field.
Tags: amateur baseball, mad dogs, our towns, sports, baseball, delmont
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