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Surging Panthers win five straight games
Cartwright
Sophomore Josh Cartwright went 3-for-6 with a double and two RBI, and pitched five strong innings to earn the win in IowaGrant's 145 non-conference win over host Potosi/Cassville last Thursday.

CASSVILLE — Two weeks ago Iowa–Grant was a scuffling 0–4 team looking to find a spark.

What a difference 10 days makes.

Coach Kyle Riemenapp’s surging Panthers have certainly turned the corner, winning five straight games in a 10-day span to improve to 5–4.

The Panthers pounded out 16 hits to rally from an early 4–1 deficit in a 14–5 non-conference road victory over Potosi/Cassville last Thursday afternoon at Cassville High School.

Sophomore Josh Cartwright went 3-for-6 with a double and a pair of RBI, and pitched five innings of solid relief to lead the I–G comeback. Cartwright (1–0) struck out seven, walked two and allowed just one run on two hits.

Junior Ross Havlik went 4-for-5 and drove in a game-high four runs for the winners. Havlik started on the mound and allowed four runs on two hits and six walks in two innings.

Fellow junior Kaden Paradis went 2-for-3 and Matthew Winders drew a pair of walks, drove in a two runs and scored

three in the win.

The Panthers scored four runs in the top of the fifth to take a 8–4 lead, then broke the game open with five in the top of the seventh.

“It has been a lot of fun coaching this team,” said coach Riemenapp. “I have been telling the team that it is a process and to keep competing. It was a rough start, but guys have stepped up when they need to. This group does an awesome job picking each other up and each player plays a certain roll on the team. Even when times get tough in a game, they know that it takes one inning to turn the game around. One of the biggest reasons for the turnaround is guys working hard. They show up everyday to get better, along with making each other better.”

Iowa–Grant (5–4, 2–3 SWAL) scored a pair of runs in the top of the third inning and held on for a 2–1 SWAL victory at Riverdale last Tuesday afternoon.

Cartwright had an RBI double to break a scoreless tie and later scored on a Riverdale error.

Cartwright also came on to pitch with bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh. He walked in a run, but got out of the jam with a game-ending pop up to the pitcher to earn the save.

Sophomore Isaac Hill (2–1) earned the win, allowing one run on three hits in six-plus innings before reaching the 100-pitch limit.  He struck out five and walked five.

Meahwhile, the first-year Potosi/Cassville co-op is a team going in the wrong direction.

The Chieftains fell to 0–8 on the season with Thursday’s loss.

Senior Jaydon Carbone took the loss, allowing four runs on one hit and four walks in one inning of relief.

Carbon doubled and walked, stole a pair of bases and scored a pair of runs in the loss.

Senior second baseman Will Bierman had two of the Chieftains’ four hits in the loss. He also walked twice and reached base all four times be batted.

Junior Jared Wunderlin started on the mound and allowed four runs, three earned, on eight hits and two walks in 32/3 innings.

“I do not think we have played with the energy that it takes to win baseball games right now,” said Potosi/Cassville coach Tony Leibfried. “There are never any excuses to not play at a high level. We want to keep working on getting better at everything specifically pitching and defense.

“The biggest struggle so far has been pitching and defensive errors and miscues. We have been in a couple of games and have not played well enough to win. We have to play hard and when mistakes happen we need to flush it and move on because this game can turn on you really fast if you do not have a tough mentality.”

Potosi/Cassville (0–8, 0–4 SRC) suffered a 6–3 Six Rivers Conference loss at Belmont last Tuesday.

The Chieftains cut the Braves’ lead to 3–2 when Ty Dressler singled and later scored on an RBI ground out by Bierman in the top of the fifth inning, but Belmont scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning to make it 6–2.

Will Cutler and Justan Ernst each had RBI doubles and Ethan James added an RBI single up the middle.

Bierman (0–2) took the loss for Potosi/Cassville, allowing three runs on seven hits and seven walks in four innings. He struck out seven.

Riley Christiansen (2–0) earned the win for the Braves (2–3, 2–1 SRC), allowing two runs on three hits and three walks in six innings before reaching the pitch limit. He struck out seven.

Iowa–Grant will host second-ranked Mineral Point (8–0, 4–0 SWAL) Friday at 4:30 p.m. They will then host Southwestern on Tuesday.

Potosi/Cassville will next host River Ridge Tuesday at 5 p.m.

 

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Iowa–Grant 2, Riverdale 1

(from Tuesday, April 16 @ Muscoda) 

Iowa–Grant 002 000 0 —   2   2  0 

Riverdale 000 000 1 —   1   3  1

Leading hitters — none. 2B — IG: Josh Cartwright.

W — Isaac Hill (2–1, 6IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 5K, 5BB). L — Schaeffer (7IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 8K, 3BB). SV — Josh Cartwright (1, 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0K, 1BB).

 

Iowa–Grant 14, Potosi/Cassville 5

(from Thursday, April 18 @ Cassville) 

Iowa–Grant 012 415 —  14 16  0 

Potosi/Cass. 130 100 —    5   4  2

Leading hitters — IG: Josh Cartwright 3x6, Ross Havlik 4x5, Kaden Paradis 2x3, Lucas Oyen 2x3; P/C: Will Bierman 2x2. 2B — IG: Josh Cartwright, Havlik; P/C: Bierman, Carbone.

W — Josh Cartwright (1–0, 5IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 7K, 2BB). L — Jaydon Carbone (0–1, 1IP, 1H, 4R, 4ER, 1K, 4BB).

 

Belmont 6, Potosi/Cassville 3

(from Tuesday, April 16 @ Belmont)

Potosi/Cassville. 100 010 1 —  3   5  0

Belmont 002 130 x —  6 13  0

Leading hitters — B: Ethan James 2x3, Brady Wedig 2x3, Colin Austin 2x3, Luke Kamps 2x4, Cody Lindholm 2x4; P/C: Jaydon Carbone 2x4;  2B — P/C: Carbone; B: Justan Ernst, Wedig, Riley Christiansen, Cutler. 

W — Riley Christensen (2–0, 6IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 7K, 3BB). L — Will Bierman (0–2, 4IP, 7H, 3R, 3ER, 7K, 7BB).