Steelville High School’s baseball fell 9-2 to Bourbon in its last game of its shortened fall season. The Cardinals played just four games after multiple rain outs and cancellations, finishing with a 2-2 record under head coach Ryan Weber and assistant coach Jackson Case. That’s the second straight fall campaign Steelville finished with a .500 record, following last year’s 5-5 fall season.

After graduating four seniors from last year’s team, Weber’s youthful bunch is made up of one junior, seven sophomores and two freshmen. Steelville is expected to add returning senior Garrett Richter for the spring season, after he decided to spend his free time during the fall in the work force. Junior Colin Orick, who ran cross country this fall, is also expected to join the team and provide valuable innings on the mound.

The Cardinals are scheduled to play 17 games in the spring and will also play in at least two more during the April 9 and 10 Bismarck Tournament.

Steelville was led this fall by its sophomore duo of Chace Grayson and Ripken Halbert, who each finished the fall season with a batting average over .500. Grayson hit .538 with three doubles, six runs batted in and a 1.369 OPS during the fall. Halbert hit .533 with three doubles, six runs scored, four runs batted in and three stolen bases.

Freshman Bentley McGinnis also impressed in the small sample size of games, hitting .500 with three runs batted in and three runs scored.

Carter Wallis led Steelville’s pitching staff with a 1.00 earned run average with 11 strikeouts in seven innings on the mound. Grandstaff earned both victories for the Cardinals and finished with team-highs of nine innings pitched and 13 strikeouts. 

Oct. 8 vs. Bourbon

The Cardinals hosted the Bourbon Warhawks in a Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) matchup on a beautiful evening in Steelville.

In the first inning, each team put multiple runners on base but starting pitchers Carter Grandstaff of Steelville and Bourbon’s Anson Hormann were able to navigate their way out of trouble and keep the game scoreless.

After both teams didn’t score in the second inning, Bourbon exploded for nine runs in the third inning to blow the game open. Carter Wallis, who came on in relief during the third inning and Hormann then settled in and dominated on the mound for the next few innings. Bourbon had a runner at third base during the fifth inning with a chance to end the game via the run rule, but Wallis bore down and the game ended up going all seven innings.

  Heading into the seventh inning down 9-0, Steelville scratched across two unearned runs off Bourbon relief pitcher Dawson King, but it wasn’t enough, as Bourbon secured a 9-2 victory as the sun set. The Warhawks finished the fall season with a 7-0 record, its only undefeated fall season in the 26 year tenure of head coach Danny Payne.

  Halbert led Steelville with two hits and a stolen base. McGinnis singled and scored, Jaxon Brooks scored once and Granstaff singled. Grandstaff struck out three Warhawks in two innings on the mound and Wallis hurled the final five innings, allowing just two hits while striking out nine.

  Hormann dazzled on the mound for Bourbon, tossing six shutout innings, allowing three hits while fanning 12 Cardinals. Hormann also reached base three times, drove in two runs and scored once. Bourbon junior catcher Emmett Jones had a game-high three base hits along with two runs batted in and two runs scored.