| Lewis
County ends Pirates season
The season came to an early end for the Prairie baseball team as they were upset by Lewis County 3-2 at the District baseball tournament Friday, May 11 at Juliaetta. Prairie had been able to score 11 and 12 runs in their two previous matchups with the Eagles’ Bryce  Stigum
but this time put up nothing but zeroes for 5 innings.
Kyle Holthaus matched Stigum on the mound through 4 innings as he allowed just 2 baserunners, a walk to lead off the game and a 2-out single in the third. In the fifth inning things came unraveled. A leadoff single was followed by a strikeout then 2 walks loaded the bases. Holthaus got a second strikeout then should have gotten out of the inning with no runs scoring. The next hitter worked a 3-2 count and then hit a comebacker to the mound. With 2 outs and a full count, all the runners got an early jump and Holthaus decided to throw home for the force there. He threw to the third base side of home and catcher Dan Riener, having to reach toward the oncoming runner for the ball, couldn’t come up with it and the run scored. The next hitter came up with a 2-run single to make it 0-3. Riener took over on the mound in the sixth and got 4 straight strikeouts before walking a pair of hitters and then getting out of the 7th inning with a strikeout and a groundout.  Meanwhile
Prairie finally got on the board against Stigum in the bottom of the sixth
when Ronnie Chandler led off the inning and hit a home run over the left
field fence. After an out, Conner Rieman reached on an error and stole
second but couldn’t advance any further.
In the 7th Holthaus reached on a 1-out error by the second baseman. He moved to second on a groundout and scored when Riener hit a double to the gap in left center. Riener thought he might have a triple but was held up by coach Pat Holthaus and nearly got put out between second and third. Chandler was then intentionally walked. Nate Kaschmitter was able to hit one up the middle but not hard enough to get through the infield. The second baseman flagged the ball down and was able to tag second base with the ball before Chandler could get there, ending the game. Prairie wound up with 7 hits in the game, a homer and a single by Chandler, a double by Riener and a single each by Holthaus, Kyle Daly, Kaschmitter and Joe Schumacher. Holthaus gave up 3 unearned runs on just 3 hits with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts in 5 innings. Riener pitched two innings allowing no hits and 2 walks with 5 strikeouts. With the loss Prairie ends their season with a 12-10 record. Lewis County 0 0 0 0 3 0 0—3 3 2 Prairie 0 0 0 0 0 1 1—2 7 3  |
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