Cyclones get both games of doubleheader

The phrase “next man up” is commonly uttered in sports, and during Monday’s home doubleheader for the HCHS Cyclones baseball team, Freshman Colton Schneider came out of the bullpen in both games, helping lead his team to victories of 8-5 and 5-4.
“I was just trying to put it over the middle and make my defense make plays,” Schneider said. “Just throwing the fastball and a few curveballs.”
In game one, Senior Cyclone Caleb Schleis took the mound and went six innings, throwing 94 pitches and left the game with an 8-2 lead.
“Schleis battled out of some jams early on in the first game,” said Cyclone Head Coach Heath Stein.
Schleis gave up a run in the top of the first inning when Senior Mustang Hunter Dukes hit an RBI double to give his team an early 1-0 lead. The Cyclones answered back right away in the bottom of the first when Matthew Sorfonden and Quinn Koesters opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Those were was followed by a sacrifice fly to right field by Schneider, moving Sorfonden to third base, allowing him to score due to a subsequent overthrow, tying the game at one.
In the bottom of the third, the Cyclones took their first lead when Koesters walked to start the inning, Schneider singled to move Koesters into scoring position, Hayden Soma walked to load the bases, and Jozef Reisz walked to bring Koesters in as the Cyclones led 2-1 after three innings.
Schleis returned to the mound for a 12-pitch top of the fourth inning, but in the bottom half, the Cyclones busted the game wide open dropping five runs on the Mustang defense. It all started with back-to-back walks by Foxx Argotsinger and Weston Reisz, and another set of back-to-back walks with the bases loaded by Koesters and Schneider, making it a 4-1 game. Brett Heese hit into a fielders choice to score Sorfonden, followed by an RBI groundout from Soma, and an RBI single by Jozef Reisz as the Cyclones led 7-1 at the end of four.
“We definitely should have put up a few more crooked numbers early,” Stein said. “We kind of took what they gave us in that inning, so good approaches making their guy work and putting a lot of runs up in that inning.”
The Cyclones were able to score another run in the bottom of the fifth when Schneider hit a sacrifice fly, and Sorfonden scored to make it an 8-1 game. The Mustangs offense got that run right back in the top of the sixth when Senior Camden Lorimor connected for an RBI single, bringing his team back within six runs at 8-2.
In the top of the seventh inning, Koesters took over out of the bullpen, allowing two runs. Stein replaced him with Schneider, who got the final two outs and the game one victory 8-4.
“It was pretty uncharacteristic for Quinn to struggle in those moments,” Stein added. “It’s nice to have a couple guys in the bullpen like Quinn and Colton, so if one doesn’t have it, the other one should.”
In game two, Weston Reisz got the ball to start the game for the Cyclones and pitched five innings and threw over 100 pitches. He still managed to exit the mound with his team leading.
“His pitch count climbed up,” Stein said of Reisz. “Some of those misses were quite a bit out of the zone, which is not like him. But tough elements, tough day to go out there and get on the mound. He did a great job getting us where we needed to be.”
The Cyclones were able to take an early lead on the Mustangs in the bottom of the first when Schneider knocked in Sorfonden on an RBI groundout to make it a 1-0 game.
The Cyclones offense added a few more runs in the bottom of the second when Weston helped his own cause with an RBI groundout, followed by Argotsinger reaching safely at first base due to the fielder coming off the bag, allowing Jozef Reisz to score making it 3-0.
“We’re trying to stay on top of the ball and not do too much,” Schneider said.
The Mustang offense was able to get themselves right back in the game in the top of the third. A groundball was hit to Heese at first base who stepped on the bag for the out. He then threw over to Kaufman at third, but the ball sailed out of reach scoring Senior Jade Spangler, who cut the Cyclone lead to 3-2.
However, the Cyclones were able to answer back in the bottom of the third when Soma hit an RBI groundout to score Koesters, which was followed by an RBI groundout by Kaufman to score Heese to make it 5-2.
Nobody scored again until the top of the fifth when another overthrow occurred at third base by the Cyclones allowing Spangler to score making it 5-3.
The Mustangs were able to get one more run in the top of the sixth on a mis-played groundball by Kaufman. Junior Dalton Athen was later hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, forcing home a run. However, Schneider once again was brilliant out of the bullpen, pitching the final two innings of the game, including a 1-2-3 top of the seventh inning, which featured a swinging strikeout of Lorimor to end the game, giving the Cyclones two wins on the night.
“We knew it was going to be a long night,” Stein said. “Colton did a really nice job closing out both of those games.”
With these wins, the Cyclones move to 21-6 on the season. They return to action at 7:30 p.m. against the 17-3 Clarinda Cardinals, whom they beat at home June 14 by a score of 7-5. Offensively, the Cardinals are led by Cole Baumgart with 29 hits and Creighton Tuzzio with a .439 batting average and 34 runs batted in. In pitching, Tuzzio has seven wins, 72 strikeouts, and a 1.01 earned run average.
“Keeping the sticks hot, and keeping our defense hot,” Schneider said. “Our pitching has been phenomenal these past few games, and we’ve got to keep that up.”