Tri-Center blanks East Mills in districts

Tri-Center scored eight first inning runs and downed East Mills 10-0 to end the Wolverines’ season in the Class 1A, District 16 opener in Neola last Tuesday.

The Wolverines (11-13 overall, 8-4 in the Corner Conference) helped the Trojans (16-8) along with three first inning walks and three errors to dig themselves a hole.

“We put ourselves in hole with the walks and errors and unearned runs,” said East Mills coach Wil Comfort. “You could tell the guys were a little shaky. We always know it’s going to be a tough battle facing a Western Iowa Conference team in the opening round. We tried to battle back but (starter Konnor) Handy did a great job keeping us off balance.

The 8-0 lead is all Trojan starter Handy would need. The senior right-hander improved to 6-1 while allowing just two hits in the win.
Wolverine starter Kameron Wederquist took the loss after not recording an out in the opening inning and giving way to reliever Weston Copperstone.

Matt Glockel and Copperstone each singled for the Wolverines’ hits.
“We were able to put the ball in play, we just couldn’t string any hits together to plate any runs,” Comfort said. “Every time we thought we might be getting somewhere, Handy would make his pitch and get out of it. Defensively we came on stronger defensively we just couldn’t climb out.”

Comfort said the Wolverines’ 11 wins this season is a school record.

“We played a lot of tough opponents early,” he said. “We had bright spots. 11-13 on a whole is a good season. For a majority of the season we were chasing the school’s first winning season. We weren’t quite able to do that.”