ANDALE, Kan. — The Andale/Garden Plain baseball team split its doubleheader against Circle on Monday at the Andale High School Sports Complex.
It took extra innings for a winner in game one, with Circle taking it 9-8 in eight innings. Andale/Garden Plain used a 12-run sixth inning in the nightcap for a 14-3 victory in six innings.
Game 1: Circle 9, Andale/Garden Plain 8 / 8 innings
Andale/Garden Plain jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning with an RBI double by Nolan Pfannenstiel, an RBI double by Greyson Winter and an RBI single by Jared Flax. A balk and an error resulted in a pair of Circle runs in the second. Circle knotted the game at 3 in the third. Winter records his second RBI double, giving Andale/Garden Plain a 4-3 advantage heading to the fourth. The Thunderbird responded with five in the inning to take an 8-4 lead. Andale/Garden Plain slowly chipped away with three in the fourth, an RBI triple by Austin Bugner, an RBI double by Noah Stanley and an RBI single by Easton Linnens. Andale/Garden Plain tied the game in the sixth on an error and had the game-winning run at third base in the seventh, but couldn’t get it across.
Circle scored the game-winning run in the eighth on an error. Andale/Garden Plain had runners on second and third in the eighth, but couldn’t level the game once more.
Easton Rieger was credited with the loss in relief, going 3 ⅔ innings, allowing one run on one hit and three strikeouts. Linnens went 3-for-5 at the plate.
Game 2: Andale/Garden Plain 14, Circle 3 / 6 innings
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, Cruz Kaiser had a sacrifice fly that got Andale/Garden Plain on the board. Circle responded with two in the fourth and one in the fifth for a 3-1 lead. The lead was cut to 3-2 in the fifth on an error.
In the sixth inning, with the bases loaded, Rieger drove in the first of 12 runs on a fielder’s choice that tied the game at 3. Back-to-back 2-run singles by Bugner and Stanley made it 7-3. Pfannenstiel extended the lead to 8-3 on an RBI double. Winter made it 10-3 on a 2-run double. Kaiser drove in his second run on an RBI double. Rieger tallied an RBI on a single, with Stanley putting the finishing touches on the win with a 2-run double to salvage the split.
Blake Winter threw 1 ⅓ innings in relief, allowing one hit and two strikeouts for his first win of the season. Stanley went 2-for-4 at the plate with four RBIs.
Andale/Garden Plain (9-9) will travel to Hutchinson on Friday for a tri against Haven and Hutchinson at Hobart-Detter Field. Andale/Garden Plain will play Haven first at approximately 4 p.m. and follow that game by facing the Salthawks. Pregame coverage on the Ad Astra Radio app and adastraradio.com will begin around 3:45 p.m.
