What began as a rough start to the week ended in exhilaration for Steelville High School’s baseball team after the Cardinals won first place on April 11 in the Bismarck Tournament.

The Cardinals took an eight game losing streak into the tournament after recent losses to Arcadia Valley and Cuba, and extended their skid to nine after falling on April 10 to Bismarck. However, Steelville would flip the script and use dominating pitching performances and timely hitting to win their next two games over Valley and Kingston by a combined score of 21-0 and win the tournament. 

The Cardinals are now 3-9 on the season and will hope to parlay the momentum from its last pair of wins into the home stretch of their season. 

After a busy week, Steelville played just one game in Bourbon on April 14, which will be detailed in next week’s edition. The Cardinals will have a week off before hosting Crocker on April 21, beginning a string of six scheduled home games before its scheduled May 11 regular season finale in Owensville.

Sluggish performance derails Cards against Arcadia Valley

The Cardinals returned to Steelville City Park for their matchup with the Arcadia Valley Tigers. The game was close for the first two innings. Arcadia Valley scored one in the top of the first and Steelville answered with a run of their own on a double from junior Garrett Richter that scored freshman Ripken Halbert.

However, that would be the only run the Cardinals would score. Arcadia Valley’s scoring came in threes, as the Tigers plated three runs in each of the third, fourth and sixth innings to pull away with a 10-1 victory that would bring Steelville’s record to 1-7 on the season.

The Cardinals didn’t get run ruled and played all seven innings. Richter started on the mound and gave up six earned runs in 3 1/3 innings, striking out three Tigers before getting taken out by manager Ryan Weber. Sophomore Colin Orick came on in relief of Richter and tossed 2 1/3 innings, giving up three earned runs and striking out three Tigers. Freshman Carter Grandstaff finished the game on the mound for the Cardinals and pitched a flawless 1 1/3 innings without allowing a baserunner.

Steelville finished with just four hits at the plate, two of which came off the bat of Halbert. Besides Halbert’s hits and Richter’s double, freshman Cameron Wallis collected the only other Cardinal base hit with a single. Steelville’s hitters in the three through eight spots in the batting order went a combined 0-for-16 at the plate. The Cardinals, who had been plagued by errors in the field, made just two errors in the ball game, after committing a combined 11 errors in their previous two games.

Steelville gets no-hit by Cuba’s Gipson

Steelville struggled from the get go on the mound and at the plate against their Highway 19 neighbor, the Cuba Wildcats. Cuba plated seven runs in the first inning, forcing Weber to use three pitchers to get three outs in the inning. After struggles from starting pitcher Halbert and reliever Chace Grayson, Grandstaff came on to get the final outs of the first inning and settled in as the game went on.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Cuba had their pitching ace on the mound, junior Braden Gipson. Gipson hurled a no-hitter in five innings of action, striking out 11 Cardinals before the game ended in a 12-0 Cuba win due to the run rule. Richter walked and Cuba committed a pair of errors for Steelville’s only base runners of the game.

Grandstaff went on to pitch four innings, striking out seven Wildcats in an admirable effort on the mound. Orick came on to get the final two outs of the game and struck out one batter.

In addition to his dominance on the mound, Gipson recorded two base hits, two runs scored and three runs batted in. Cuba Senior Adam Doyle went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and picked up a stolen base and had a game-high four runs batted in.

Steelville’s junior varsity team picked up a 5-4 victory in the second game of the day between the Wildcats and Cardinals.

Steelville loses pitcher’s duel to Bismarck

Steelville’s bats started slow in the first half of their April 10 doubleheader in the Bismarck Tournament against the Bismarck Indians. The Cardinals received solid pitching performances from senior Trentin Garrison and Richter, but were shutout by Bismarck pitchers Keaton Sadler and Ean Bone and fell 3-0 in seven innings.

Steelville out hit Bismark 5-2 but the Indians were able to play small ball and squeak out two runs in the fourth and one run in the sixth to get the victory. Richter and Halbert each doubled and Garrison, Grayson and Trey Gambill singled for the Cardinals five base hits. Halbert and Garrison each stole a base in the loss.

Woods’ no hitter leads Cards to victory over Valley

Desperately needing a shutdown-pitching performance in their second game of the day, Steelville senior Jackson Woods gave his team exactly what his team needed to snap their losing streak. Woods hurled a no-hitter against Valley, striking out 14 Vikings in seven innings of dominance on the mound.

Steelville’s offense was methodical, scoring one run in each of the second, third, fourth and six innings and adding two in the fifth to come away with a 6-0 win.

Gambill got the Cards on the board with a run-scoring single in the second and freshman Carter Wallis added another RBI single in the top of the third. Wallis had the most productive game of his young career, picking up two hits, two runs batted in and a stolen base. Richter also collected a pair of singles, scored a run and stole a base. Garrison singled, stole a pair of bases and scored twice and Halbert singled, scored and swiped a pair of steals. Valley junior Blake Gillam reached base via walk and stole a pair of bases to lead the Vikings.

Cardinals bats come alive in blowout win over Kingston

After falling to Kingston on March 27 in a winnable game, the Cardinals looked ready to get revenge in the April 11 finals of the Bismarck tournament. 

After both teams went scoreless in the first innings, Steelville erupted for six runs in the second, five in the third and four in the fourth to score a season-high 15 runs in just four innings of at bats. Richter pitched five shutout innings, striking out five Vikings and the Cardinals picked up a 15-0 run-rule victory to earn the first-place trophy in the Bismarck Tournament. 

Carter Wallis followed his strong performance against Valley with another solid showing against Kingston. Wallis belted his first career triple, scored three times and drove in two runs. Grayson stuffed the stat sheet, collecting a pair of base hits, two runs batted in, two stolen bases and three runs scored. Garrison also picked up a pair of base hits, scored three times and stole three bases.

Kingston senior first baseman Joseph Hahn doubled and singled for the Vikings only base hits of the game.