Raiders lose close games

The Arcadia baseball team struggled to get timely hits or big outs when needed as they lost three close games before ending the week with a win.

The Raiders began play last Monday with a 6-2 loss to Altoona before falling to Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau 2-0 (see story elsewhere in Sports). They went to extra innings against Black River Falls on Thursday, but came away with a 6-5 loss before beating Melrose-Mindoro on Saturday.

Arcadia hosted G-E-T on Monday before welcoming Onalska Luther on Thursday. This coming Tuesday they’ll play a doubleheader at West Salem.

Altoona 6 Arcadia 2

The Raiders couldn’t recover from the Rails’ five-run third inning.

Altoona put up five runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batter to take a 5-0 lead. They added another in the fourth. The Raiders brought two home on a single by Mavrick Drazkowski in the bottom of the fourth, but that’s as close as they’d get. 

Arcadia had four hits in the game with four different players getting one. 

Vince Braun took the loss, allowing five hits and three walks while striking out two in three innings. Prestin Scow pitched the rest of the game, striking out one with two hits allowed. 

BR Falls 6 Arcadia 5

The Tigers scored in the bottom of the ninth inning to hand the Raiders a loss.

The leadoff single the Raiders gave up in the bottom of the ninth wouldn’t have been so bad if not for an error. After the single, the next two batters hit into fielder’s choices. An error on the second out, however, advanced a runner to scoring position before a two-out single scored the winning run.

Arcadia needed three runs in the top of the seventh to force extra innings. Boland led off the seventh with a double before Connor Weltzien walked. That brought up Carson Martin who tied the game 4-4 with a three-run home run to right field. 

Martin singled to bring home the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth. The Tigers tied the game in the bottom half of the inning on a balk with two outs.

Arcadia had eight hits as Martin was three-for-four with four RBIs. Yarrington was two-for-five. 

Yarrington pitched the first eight innings, allowing nine hits while striking out four without a walk. Boland came on to start the ninth.

Arcadia 6 Mel-Min 3

The Raiders scored the first five runs and held on for the win.

Martin doubled home the first run in the top of the first inning before scoring himself on a groundout. 

Drazkowski doubled in a run in the top of the fourth to start what was a three-run inning with Boland adding an RBI single. 

The Mustangs scored one in the bottom of the fourth and two in the sixth to make it a two-run game, but Arcadia got one back in the top of the seventh.

Martin had three of Arcadia’s eight hits and Ryan Gardow added two.

Prestin Scow was the winning pitcher, tossing six innings with 10 hits allowed and three strikeouts. Martin finished the game, striking out three with one walk allowed.