Rams fall to St. Albert, 14-10

Council Bluffs St. Albert plated seven runs in the final two innings to erase a three run deficit and escape Glenwood with a 14-10 Hawkeye 10 Conference baseball victory Friday.

The Rams (8-6 overall, 6-5 in the conference) smacked a season-high 18 hits in the win but just didn’t pitch good enough to win, said Glenwood coach Bret Elam.

“We get down 5-0, tie it at 5-5 and then get up 7-5 and they answer,” Elam said. “We had a chance to get out of the sixth quick, we didn’t and they took advantage of it. We couldn’t get anything over (the plate) and gave up way too many base-runners.”

In all, Elam said, with errors and walks, the Rams gave up 17 “free” base runners.
“Giving up that many I’m surprised we were in the game at all,” he said.

Zak Mumm started on the hill and allowed six hits and two earned runs in four innings of work. But the Glenwood bullpen struggled with consistency.

“We knew we were going to use a lot of pitchers being shorthanded but we struggled to get the ball over the plate,” Elam said. “We combined to throw 170 pitches. That’s too many.”

A.J. Slaughter came on to pitch the final inning and 1/3 and was credited with the loss. The sophomore allowed five earned runs on three hits.

At the plate, Kyle Murtfeld, Talon Stromgren and Mavrick Decker each recorded three hits. Wyatt Schulz, Kolton Wilwerding and Dru Little added two hits apiece.

Rams split with Harlan

After dropping a 7-1 decision to Harlan in the opener of a Hawkeye 10 Conference road double-header Thursday, Glenwood bounced back to down the Cyclones 4-3 in the nightcap.

The Rams pulled off the game two winner with some late-inning heroics in the seventh and again in the eight.

Mavrick Decker led off the seventh inning game-tying rally with a single. After being sacrificed to second and then third, the speedy sophomore scored on Dru Little’s sacrifice fly to tie it.

In the eighth, after pinch-hitter Talon Stromgren led off with a single, Nate Nebel’s squeeze bunt two batters later plated pinch runner Carter Von Essen with the game-winner.

“I don’t usually like to bunt early in games because I don’t want to take the bat out of kids’ hands but we wanted to change up our strategy a bit and try manufacturing some runs,” said Glenwood coach Bret Elam, whose team recorded seven sacrifice bunts and three sacrifice flies in the game. “You know Harlan is going to be sound defensively and not make a lot of mistakes so we talked about fighting through and playing smart.”

Wyatt Schulz was the workhorse on the mound for the Rams in the game two victory.

The senior threw season-high 109 pitches in the complete game win, striking out nine and scattering six hits.

“This was hit best outing of the year,” Elam said. “I asked him in the seventh if he was okay and he said there was no way he was coming out. He was a bulldog for us and he pitched great.”

In the opener, Harlan smacked eight hits off Ram starter Dru Little in a 7-1 victory. Elam said he didn’t think Little pitched bad as much as Harlan got his when they needed to.

“He didn’t get ahead of batters like he needs to but he pitched pretty well,” Elam said of Little. “It just seemed like Harlan would get somebody on base and they’d find a way to get him home.”

Schulz and Cole Loeffelbein led the Rams with a combined three hits each in the twinbill.