It took a seventh-inning rally, but the Borgia baseball Knights continued their recent surge Monday with a home win over De Soto, 3-2.
The Knights (8-4), who now have won four games in a row, needed to score in the bottom of the seventh to break a 2-2 tie with the Dragons.
“Even when we lost the lead, we kept our heads up,” said Borgia Head Coach Rob Struckhoff. “We knew we were going to win and our kids got it done.”
Borgia seemed to be cruising along until that point. The Knights scored once in the first inning and once in the third to take a 2-0 lead behind Brendan Feldmann.
“Brendan pitched well until the sixth inning,” said Struckhoff. “De Soto got two singles and then scored the runs on a two-out double to left-center field to tie the game.”
Feldmann overpowered the Dragons for much of the game. He allowed two runs on five hits and one walk while striking out nine.
“Brendan pitched a great game,” Struckhoff said. “This is the best team he’s faced. De Soto is the only team to beat Lutheran South so far this season.”
The seventh inning turned into the Matt Jones show.
Jones, who started as the team’s designated hitter, came in to pitch in the seventh inning and struck out one while retiring De Soto in order.
In the bottom of the seventh, he was in the right time at the right place.
Grant Eckelkamp led off the inning by being hit by a pitch. Brendan Kleekamp bunted him to second and Trent Leimkuehler received an intentional walk.
That’s when Jones stepped up to deliver his third hit of the game, a single to left field, to give the Knights the victory.
“Matt came in and retired them in order in the top of the inning and drove in the winning run in the bottom,” Struckhoff said. “He had three hits in the game, so it was a good one for him.”
Jones also drew a walk in the game.
The Knights had chances to add to the lead, but lost a couple of runners at the plate during the game.
“We had a couple of plays at the plate which didn’t go our way,” Struckhoff said. “We could have had a couple of insurance runs. We could have used them.”
Borgia only had five hits in the game and Leimkuehler and Jack Kopmann also reached base on hits.
Leimkuehler also drove in a run, walked and stole a base. Kopmann also drew a walk.
Borgia made use of seven walks in the game. Eckelkamp drew a pair while Kleekamp and Noah Borgerding also drew walks.
“Defensively we played a pretty good game and made all of the plays behind the pitchers,” Struckhoff said.
