Steelville High School’s baseball season began on March 19 with a marathon day of baseball.

In a split-team doubleheader, the Cardinals played Bismarck at noon, had about a two hour break, and then took on Plato starting around 4:30 p.m. The Cardinals fell to Bismarck in the opening game before winning a slugfest against Plato to go 1-1 to start the season.

The Cardinals were scheduled to play back-to-back games on March 23 and March 24 in Salem and in Valley, which will be detailed in next week’s edition. Steelville will then host Kingston at 4:30 p.m. on March 27 before playing on the road in Richland on March 30 and in Pacific on March 31.

Building on fall season

The young Steelville team is coming off a 5-5 fall season in which Athletic Director Ryan Weber took the reins as the team’s manager as well. The Cardinals have eight freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and four seniors on their active roster.

Senior Nate Gambill, who played in the fall, sustained a knee injury during basketball season and will miss the entire spring season. Sophomore Caden Collinson, who had the game-winning base hit in Steelville’s last game during the fall season, is also out with an injury and will also most likely miss the spring season. Steelville does have senior Jackson Woods back with the team, after he didn’t play during the fall.

Steelville is hoping to improve from a 2-12 season last year and Weber and assistant coach Jackson Case hope that the predominately group of freshman will be able to immediately contribute and mesh with its senior leaders Woods, Hunter Starbeck, Trentin Garrison and Nolan Butler.

Season-opener March 19 vs. Bismarck

The Cardinals were able to escape school and enjoy the sunshine for their opening day matinee game versus the Bismarck Indians. 

For the majority of the game, it was a pitchers duel between Woods and Bismarck senior Chadrick Dickey. The Indians took a 1-0 lead on an RBI ground out in the second inning and Steelville was able to tie the game at one in the third inning after Woods was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. But the Cardinals squandered multiple early opportunities to take a lead. Steelville left a runner on third base in the first two innings and left runners at second and third during the fourth inning.

After Bismarck added a run on a RBI single from Dickey in the fourth inning, the Indians took a 2-1 lead. The score remained the same heading into the seventh and final inning. Woods, who was nearing 100 pitches, came back out to pitch the final inning. Woods was able to get one out before walking two and giving up a single to load the bases. He exited the game and after a pair of errors, Bismarck was able to put up four runs to make it a 6-1 game. Steelville didn’t score in the bottom half of the inning and what had been primarily a pitchers duel much of the game ended in a 6-1 loss for the Cardinals.

Woods struck out 11 batters and was mostly dominant in his season-pitching debut before laboring in the final inning. Steelville freshman Ripken Halbert led off, started at shortstop and had a productive two-hit day at the plate, highlighted by a double and Steelville’s lone run scored. Starbeck hit clean up and also collected two base hits. Garrett Richter, Woods and Garrison each added one hit for the Cardinals.

Gaining the doubleheader split March 19 vs. Plato

After a two hour layoff between games, Steelville returned to the diamond to take on Plato for their second game of the day.

The Cardinals had a sluggish start and Plato scored five runs in the first inning, two of which were unearned, off starting pitcher Chace Grayson. But Steelville didn’t just roll over, and the red and white scored one run in each of the first two innings to make it a 5-2 game heading into the fourth inning.

The Cardinals then dominated the fourth inning to flip the script of the game, scoring seven runs on four hits to turn a three-run deficit into a four-run lead. Freshman Carter Grandstaff roped a two-run single for the biggest hit of his young career to cap the huge inning for the Cardinals. Steelville added one more run in the sixth to take a 10-5 lead. Plato rallied for three runs in the bottom of the inning to narrow the deficit to two runs. But Halbert, who came in during the sixth inning to pitch, threw a scoreless-seventh inning to pick up the save and help secure Steelville’s first victory of the season.

Steelville smacked 14 base hits against Plato, doubling their output in their earlier game against Bismarck.

Halbert collected three hits and two runs batted in, capping off a productive day at the plate and on the mound. Richter, Woods, Grandstaff and Cameron Wallis each added a pair of  base hits during the victory.

Grayson singled and walked twice and Carter Wallis and Starbeck each registered a base hit. Sophomore Colin Orick came in on relief of Grayson and gave up two runs in 4 1/3 innings, while striking out six batters to steady Steelville’s pitching and allow the Cardinals to have a chance at the comeback win. Porter McCabe led Plato with two hits and three runs batted in.