Cyclones struggle in doubleheader with Rams

In both games of a doubleheader Monday night at home, the later innings proved costly for the HCHS Cyclones baseball team, as they dropped game one 16-7 and game two 10-7.
“It’s a long season with long weeks where we’ll have to get deeper into our staff,” said Cyclone Head Coach Heath Stein. “Up until this point in the season, our starting pitching has been so good that we haven’t used a ton of guys.”
In game one, Cyclone Senior Caleb Schleis took the mound and was finding ways to record outs until the top of the fifth inning. The Rams offense busted the game wide open with a 4-spot, followed by another five runs in the top of the sixth that forced Stein to go to the bullpen, replacing Schleis with Owen Neve.
Schleis pitched 5 2/3 innings, striking out five Rams, but gave up 11 runs on six hits, while walking three batters and hitting three batters.
“He had a lot of free bases that kind of piled up,” Stein said. “When you put guys on base in front of the two guys in their lineup that can hit, that’s what happens.”
Offensively, the Cyclones were able to produce runs, starting with a game tying RBI double in the bottom of the first inning off the bat of Brett Heese to score Quinn Koesters, followed by Colton Schneider with an RBI single to score Heese to give the Cyclones a 2-1 lead at the end of the first inning.
Later in the bottom of the third inning with the Cyclones trailing by one once again, they were able to get their bats going and take the lead back with Cade Nelson connecting at the plate with a two out 2-run double to give his team a 4-3 lead.
Schneider knocked in another run in the bottom of the fourth inning to give the Cyclones a 2-run lead, but when the Rams returned to bat in the top of the fifth inning, Senior Ram Kayden Anderson launched a home run, his second of the night and from then on the Rams took control of the game.
“He’s a good player,” Stein said of Anderson. “If you put guys on in front of him, it makes it tough. They have a couple of guys in their lineup where you’ve got to execute pitches and if you miss, they might hurt you.”
The Cyclones were able to score a few more runs with their final run of game one coming on a bases loaded walk by Weston Reisz, but the Rams hung on for a dominant 16-7 win.
In game two, Koesters got the ball, and like Schleis in game one, Koesters was making dominant pitches going five innings, striking out seven batters, and only allowing three runs on four hits.
“Quinn has been in his bullpen role because our four starters have been throwing the ball very, very well,” Stein said. “He’s been on the back end, and we needed to have him start today. He did a good job. He executed really good pitches and had the curveball going pretty good. He just hung one to [Trent] Patton that got hit in the gap, and that’s the three runs he gave up basically.”
Offensively, the Rams struck first in the top of the third inning when Patton hit a groundball for a fielders choice to knock in a run giving his team a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the third inning, the Cyclones answered back with an RBI single from Heese to score Landen Kaufman tying the game at one run apiece.
The Rams got two runs in the top of the fifth to put themselves up 3-1, and the Cyclones once again responded dropping four runs in the bottom of the fifth to put themselves up 5-3 with a 2-run double from Hayden Soma, followed by another 2-run double by Schneider, who was thrown out at third base attempting to stretch a double into a triple.
In the sixth inning, the Rams busted the game open once again scoring six runs, followed by another run in the top of the seventh. The Cyclones added a few more runs, but lost 10-7 dropping both games of the doubleheader.
Their busy week continues with their next game Tuesday on the road 7:30 p.m. at Denison playing the 8-6 Monarchs. The Cyclones are hoping for redemption after dropping their game at home 5-4 May 30 in six innings due to game being called early with potential thunder in the area.
Offensively, the Monarchs are led by Jake Fink with 16 hits and Cole Kastner with nine runs batted. On the mound, Camdyn Nemitz has four wins, while Kastner leads the team in earned run average with 1.40, and Cody Schulte leads the team in strikeouts with 25.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Stein said. “It’s another conference game. It’ll be tough. They got us last time here in a game maybe they shouldn’t have and we know that, so we’ll go compete.”