ABILENE – The Abilene Cowboys ended the TMP-Marian Monarchs’ baseball team's first losses Friday, ending the Monarchs' 12-game win streak to start the season.
GAME: Abilene 7, TMP 2
In the first game of the doubleheader, Abilene took advantage
of a pair of first-inning errors by TMP, jumping out to a 7-0 lead, and they went
on to the 7-2 victory.
The Monarchs' only runs came in the top of the second inning.
Adler Brown singled to center field with a pair of runners aboard, and Connor Breit added an RBI groundout in the next at-bat, making it 7-2 Abilene.
TMP threatened to score several times over the next five innings but couldn’t push across another run as Abilene held on to the 7-2 lead.
Carson Liles allowed all seven runs, but none were earned, with one walk and five strikeouts, in six innings.
Brown, Jacob Seib and Ian Nehls each collected a pair of hits.
GAME: Abilene 10, TMP 9
It took extra innings for the Monarchs and Cowboys to
determine a winner in the second game of the doubleheader, but unfortunately for
TMP, the Cowboys scored the game-winner on the Monarchs’ fourth error.
After two scoreless innings, the Monarchs broke onto the scoreboard, scoring three times in the top of the third.
Ty Schmeidler gave TMP the early lead with a double to left, scoring the game's first run.
Two batters later, TMP’s Grant Nehls doubled to left field, driving in two runs, for a 3-0 TMP lead.
Abilene answered right back, scoring three runs in the bottom of the inning for a 3-3 tie.
The Cowboys scored a run in the fourth and held onto a 4-3 lead before TMPP scored three runs in the top of the sixth. TMP scored on RBI singles by Caden Dinkel, Grant Nehls and Connor Breit, giving TMP a 6-4 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth.
The lead was short-lived with the Cowboys scoring three times and retaking a 7-6 lead.
TMP got a run back, tying the game at seven, in the top of the seventh on a Schmeidler sacrifice fly.
In extra innings, TMP scored two runs in the top of the eighth. Scoring on an Austin Gilbert RBI ground out and a wild pitch for a 9-7 lead.
But Abilene came right back, scoring two in the bottom of the eighth.
Neither team threatened in the ninth, and then TMP worked around a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the 10th inning. But TMP also failed to score with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the 11th.
Finally, in the bottom of the 11th with one out, TMP first baseman Ian Nehls misplayed a bunt, allowing the game-winning run to score from third, giving Abilene the 10-9 victory.
Grant Nehls drove in three runs and Connor Breit collected three hits for TMP.
Nehls suffered the loss on the mound. He allowed six runs, four earned, on seven hits with seven walks and five strikeouts in five and a third innings.
Now 12-2 TMP will host Oberlin in a doubleheader Monday.