| Pirates
end regular season with a loss
The Prairie baseball team ended their regular season with a loss as they fell 1-8 at Kendrick Tuesday, May 1. Prairie was limited to just 4 hits and 1 run by Kendrick ace Rex Ireland. Prairie’s only run came in the sixth inning. Collecting a single each were Kyle Daly, Dan Riener, Conner Rieman and Ben Schumacher. Kendrick meanwhile had only 5 hits but three of them were doubles and errors also hurt the Pirates. Ronnie Chandler started the game for Prairie and pitched the first 4 innings allowing 5 runs. Riener pitched the final 2 innings and allowed 3 more runs. With the loss Prairie ends the regular season with an 11-8 record and an 8-5 league record, good for third place. Prairie 0 0 0 0 0 1 0—1 4 4 Kendrick 2 0 2 1 0 3 x—8 5 4 Pirates split first two district games The Prairie baseball team opened the district tournament with a 9-3 win over Troy then lost to Kendrick 3-8 with both games taking place at Juliaetta Saturday, May 5. Prairie’s next game will be a loser-out contest against Lewis County this Friday, May 11, at 3 p.m. at Juliaetta. If they win that game they would play the C.V.-Timberline winner on Saturday at noon also at Juliaetta with the winner of that game advancing to state as the District’s third seed. By defeating Prairie, Kendrick advanced to the District Championship game and clinched a state berth as well. They will face Genesee for the District championship on Saturday. 
In the opener against Troy, Prairie pitcher Ronnie Chandler gave up a double and single to Troy in the first inning for a run. Prairie came right back in the bottom of the first. Kyle Holthaus reached on an error and went to third on Dan Riener’s double to the corner in left. Holthaus scored on Chandler’s groundout to short and Riener scored on Nate Kaschmitter’s slow roller that was fielded by the pitcher. The pitcher decided to throw home and Riener, who had a great lead off of third and was going on contact, beat the throw. After the rough start, Chandler settled down on the mound and shut out Troy until the seventh inning. He was helped out of a jam in the third inning after the first two hitters singled. The next hitter grounded to third with Holthaus tagging the bag to force the runner from second. The next hitter lofted a fly to center with Kaschmitter making the catch. The runner on second took off on contact and Kaschmitter easily doubled him off to end the inning. In the bottom of the third Prairie erupted for 6 runs. Holthaus again reached on an error to lead off the inning and scored on Riener’s home run to the bike path beyond the left field fence. Chandler followed with a single to left that tipped off the shortstop’s glove. Kaschmitter grounded back to the pitcher but the second baseman dropped the ball for an error. Conner Rieman then blooped a single behind third that the shortstop got a glove on but couldn’t catch to load the bases. Eric Daly then beat out an infield single to score Chandler. Ben Schumacher then singled to right to score Kaschmitter and Rieman. A balk moved the runners over to second and third and Daly scored on Holthaus’ grounder to third when the third baseman couldn’t figure out what to do with the ball. Instead of waiting for Schumacher to run into a tag he threw to second, apparently thinking there was a force on or that Schumacher, who had stopped, would retreat.  The
Pirates added another run in the fourth when Riener walked and was balked
to second. He scored on Kaschmitter’s single to right.
Troy tried to rally in the seventh. Chandler struck out the leadoff hitter but walked the next hitter, after both went to 3-2 counts. The next hitter also went to 3-2 before grounding back to Chandler who forced the runner at second. Chandler then hit the next two batters to load the bases. The next hitter singled in two runs but was put out trying to go to second on the play, to end the game. Prairie had 7 hits in the game with Riener having a homer and a double. Chandler, Kaschmitter, Rieman, Eric Daly and Schumacher each had a single. Chandler allowed 3 runs on 6 hits with 1 walk, 2 hit batters and 7 strikeouts. In the game against Kendrick 2 walks, 2 errors and a double in the first inning led to 4 runs by the Tigers, all before anyone was put out. Once pitcher Nate Kaschmitter got an out, he settled down and got out of the inning and strung zeroes for the next 4 innings. The closest Kendrick came to scoring in those innings was in the 5th on a single to left with a runner on second. Eric Daly fielded the single in left and gunned out the runner trying to score with Riener making a great tag on the play. Meanwhile Prairie wasn’t doing anything against Kendrick starter Rex Ireland as the only baserunner in the first 3 innings was Kaschmitter who swung at a pitch in the dirt for strike three but reached first when the catcher couldn’t come up with the ball. In the top of the fourth Kyle Daly broke through for Prairie’s first hit of the game on a single to left. A passed ball moved him to second and he went to third when Riener reached on an error. Riener stole second and Daly scored on the play as the catcher’s throw went into centerfield. Kendrick put up 4 more runs thanks mostly to 3 more errors in the bottom of the sixth. In the top of the seventh Riener led off and again reached on an error and stole second. Kaschmitter picked up a hit when he stuck the bat out and served the ball into right field for a single. 
With runners on first and third, Kaschmitter took off too early for second but in trying to make the pickoff throw, Ireland threw wide of the bag at second with Kaschmitter making it in safely and Riener scoring on the play. Kaschmitter wound up going to third. Another error allowed Eric Daly to reach first with 2 outs and Kaschmitter scored on the play to make it 3-8. Ben Schumacher then reached on a passed ball strike three and Joe Schumacher reached on an error to load the bases. Holthaus then popped up to first to end the game. Prairie had just 2 hits in the game against Kendrick’s ace, a single each by Kyle Daly and Kaschmitter. They struck out 16 times. Kaschmitter allowed 8 runs on 6 hits with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. Only 1 of the runs was earned. With the 1-1 record on the day Prairie is now 12-9 on the season. Vs. Troy Troy 1 0 0 0 0 0 2—3 6 3 Prairie 2 0 6 1 0 0 x—9 7 1 Vs. Kendrick Prairie 0 0 0 1 0 0 2—3 2 6 Kendrick 4 0 0 0 0 4 x—8 5 7 PHS BASEBALL May 12-if won Friday will play Timberline-C.V. winner at noon for third place and berth in state tournament 18-19-State-still at Caldwell is latest report. |
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