Jun. 6—PRAIRIE CITY — South Tama County scored three runs in the first two innings and Mickey Wanatee struck out 15 batters over six innings during a 9-5 non-conference road win over PCM’s baseball team on Friday night.
PCM got within 4-2 in the fifth but STC (4-4) pulled away for good with a five-run seventh. The Mustangs countered with three in the bottom of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough to complete the rally.
“We did OK offensively, but we had too many strikeouts,” PCM baseball coach Jeff Lindsay said. “When you don’t put the ball in play, you don’t give yourself an opportunity.”
The Trojans’ pitchers fanned 16 in all. PCM finished with eight hits but only four came against Wanatee, who tossed the first six innings.
Caleb Duinink tallied three hits, two runs and one RBI to lead PCM’s offense. Sage Burns had one hit, two runs and one steal, Dylan Warrick added one hit and one run, Connor Bennett tallied one hit and one RBI and Gavin Fenton walked once and had an RBI.
Cade Lindsay also had one hit and one walk, Beau Webb cranked out a hit and Andrew Mitchell was hit by a pitch.
The Mustangs (3-2) were plagued by four errors.
“Defensively, we didn’t play bad,” Lindsay said. “We need to be cleaner on a few plays. I know they can make the plays though.”
Easton Webb started on the mound and pitched the first 4 1/3 innings, allowing four earned runs on seven hits with two strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter. He took the loss.
Andrew Mitchell tossed 1 2/3 innings and surrendered just one hit and one walk while striking out one and allowing no runs.
Burns pitched 1/3 of an inning and allowed four earned runs on two hits with three walks. Duinink pitched the final 2/3 innings and allowed no runs on no hits with one strikeout.
It was the first appearances on the mound this season for Burns and Duinink. Burns hadn’t pitched in three years.
“Easton competed well,” Coach Lindsay said. “He did a good job making his pitches. We are trying to build him up. He was solid.”