By Joey Hudson
The 6-4 Mankato West Scarlets came into town on Tuesday May 9th to play the Raiders who came into the game 7-2 in conference play. Senior Tyler Hughes started on the mound for the Raiders and threw a complete game shutout! On the other side Mankato West pitcher Mason DeRose also went the whole game only allowing one earned run.
The Scarlets threatened to score early after getting junior left fielder Talay Sartell onto second after a walk with only one out. Hughes struck out the next batter he faced and Sartell was able to move over to third, but then Hughes got his second straight strikeout to end the threat. The Scarlets threatened to score again in the top of the second when they got three hits back to back to back. There was a baserunning mistake made by the Scarlets Zach Kammerer for the second out of the inning coming on the base paths. The Scarlets then had runners on first and third with two outs and Hughes had yet another clutch strikeout ending the Mankato West threat.
The Raiders started off the scoring in the bottom of the second. The inning started off with an Aaron Reisetter hit by pitch and a bloop single from senior right fielder Charlie Monaghan. Reisetter was brought around to score when senior first baseman Jake Eschen ripped a hard ground ball into right field for an RBI double. Monaghan came around to score when senior Catcher Gabe Sawyer hit a soft ground ball that the shortstop couldn’t field cleanly, allowing Sawyer to reach and Monaghan to score.
After his clutch strikeout in the second, Tyler Hughes set down the next twelve Scarlets batters. The dominant stretch did include two base hits, but the runners were retired on a caught stealing, and a 4-6-3 double play. The raiders scored again in the bottom of the fifth after Spencer Mellgren and Kam Kaiser had back to back hits. Along with a fielder error after Kaisers hit, the Raiders had runners on second and third with no one out when junior star outfielder Austin Keop hit a pop up into foul ground deep enough for Spencer Mellgren to tag up on and score. The game ended when Hughes struck out the Scarlets Jude Etter looking on a fastball to complete the shutout.
Hughes took home the Northfield Raiders play of the game, as awarded by @northfieldboysbaseball on instagram. Jake Eschen led the Raiders bats going 2-3 with a double and an RBI. The Raiders moved to 8-2 in conference play and 9-4 overall as Mankato West fell to 6-5 in conference play. The Raiders play next on Thursday May 11th with a double header in Owatonna. The next game that we will be streaming here on northfieldlive.com is next Tuesday may 14th, but stay tuned to us on social media and to the calendar on our website for any updates on that.