Tuesday May 2, the Kimball seventh-grade baseball team hosted the Irish of Maple Lake. The Cubs defeated the combined seventh- and eighth-grade Irish team by a score of 11-6. The Cubs bats were hot early and built a
7 to 1 lead after 3 innings. The Cubs were able to score in every inning except one. Austin Donnay started on the mound and threw 5 strong innings. He struck out 11 Irish batters while giving up 7 hits and walking only 2. Ashton Hanan came in and pitched the last two innings. After a 1-2-3 6th-inning Ashton ran into a jam in the 7th, he walked 2 hitters and gave up a hit to load the bases with one out. Maple Lake?Äôs clean-up hitter hit a deep fly ball to center, but Cody Leither made a fantastic catch up against the fence and proceeded to double off the runner from second to end the game. For the game, the Cubs had 17 hits. Hitting highlights included Zach Holtz 4-4 with 2 rbi, Hanan 2-3 with 2 rbi, Donnay 2-5 with a homerun and 2 rbi, Leither 2-4, Devin Waldorf 2-4 with 2 rbi, Ace Meyer, 2-2 with a sac fly rbi, Carter Holtz 1-3, Skylor Gruba 1-4 with an rbi, and Mathew Young 1-4.
Thursday, May 4, the Cubs again were at home to play host to Holdingford. The Cubs scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 5th to erase a 5-4 deficit and win 7-5. Ace Meyer started on the mound and was lights out for the first 3 innings only walking one batter. The Cubs added to their 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd, Ashton Hanan and Meyer both hit singles to start the inning. Hanan advanced to 3rd and scored on a passed ball. After a strikeout, Skylor Gruba came up and ripped a single to score Meyer. Later in the inning Gruba scored on Matthew Young?Äôs single to make the score 4-0. In the 4th, Meyer ran into a little jam. He gave up a 2 run homerun and then gave up 3 singles to load the bases with one out. However, he battled and proceeded to strike out the next two hitters and leave the bases full and preserve the 4-2 lead. In the 5th, Holdingford scored 3 runs to put them ahead 5-4. The Cubs battled back in the bottom half of the inning with Gruba, Young, and Riley Reischl all collecting base hits. Then Devin Waldorf had a big 2 out single that scored two runs to put the Cubs ahead 7-5. Gruba then came in and had a 1-2-3 6th inning to close the game down. Hitting highlights included Gruba 3-3, Young 2-2, Hanan 2-4, Waldorf 2-4, Meyer 2-3, and Reischl 1-3. This week the Cubs have two more home games against Howard Lake on Tuesday and BBE on Friday.