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Craig outscores Parker for baseball win

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Parker vs. Craig Baseball

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JANESVILLE — Janesville Craig’s baseball team finally figured out Tuesday what has been missing all season. Warm conditions.

On an absolutely perfect day for a game at Riverside Park, the Cougars pounded out 13 hits en route to a 9-6 Big Eight Conference win over cross-town rival Janesville Parker.

Craig High (7-7, 4-7) got four solid innings from starting pitcher Ben Yaucher and a perfect 1-2-3 seventh from Trevor Foss in completing a regular-season sweep of Parker (4-5, 4-6).

“The warm weather was great for our bats today,” Craig coach Victor Herbst said. “To be honest, when you play a Big Eight game and get that many hits against a quality pitcher like Garrett (Morris), you have to be pleased.

“It was big for us to knock him out of the game early,” Herbst said of Morris, Parker’s ace. “He just keeps battling and battling and coming after you. So that was huge to get to him early.”

The game was tied 1-1 after two innings before the Cougars chased Morris with four runs in the top of the third. With one out, Foss singled and advanced to second on an error. Yaucher followed with an RBI single to give Craig the lead for good, and Dylan Grall’s single scored courtesy-runner Ben Olin with the third run.

Olin ran three times for Yaucher and scored every time. J.T. McCrone kept the inning alive for Craig with a RBI single, and Zach Whalen’s RBI double put an end to Morris’ day.

“Give Craig some credit,” Parker coach Brian Martin said. “They swung the bats well today and put the ball in play when they needed to with runners on base. And Garrett wasn’t as sharp as he has been.

“We didn’t pitch well today, and we didn’t hit well until late. When we did start hitting the ball hard, it was too little and too late.”

Parker sliced the lead to three with a run in the third, but Craig pushed the margin back to seven with two runs in the fourth and fifth. Grall drove in his second run of the game with an RBI single in the fourth, and Foss delivered a two-run double to make it 9-2 in the fifth.

The Vikings chipped away at the lead, thanks to a long home run from Matt Beyer, but Foss came on in the seventh to save Craig.

Foss, a senior righthander, pitched seven innings on Saturday but told Herbst he was available for a couple of innings against Parker. As it turned out, he was needed.

“Our plan was for Ben to give us four innings, and he was able to do that,” Herbst said. “Trevor said he wasn’t 100 percent, but he could give us an inning or two. We brought him in because I didn’t want to open the door for Parker.

“The bottom line is that this is still a Craig/Parker game, and anything can happen.”

Grall led Craig’s hit parade by going 3-for-4, while Foss, Yaucher, Kaleb Eichman and Nick Weber had two hits each.

Beyer had three hits for the Vikings, including a double to go along with his home run.

Parker hosts Beloit on Thursday in a Big Eight Conference game, while Craig is at Madison West.

CRAIG 9, PARKER 6

Craig (ab-r-h-rbi)—Bayreuther, ss, 4-0-0-0; Foss, 2b-p, 5-1-2-2; Yaucher, p-rf, 3-0-2-1; Olin, cr, 0-3-0-0; Eichman, c, 3-0-2-0; Mussey, cr, 0-2-0-0; Grall, 1b, 4-1-3-2; McCrone, dh, 4-0-1-2; Miller, cf, 0-0-0-0; Whalen, 3b, 4-0-1-1; Weber, lf, 4-1-2-0; Wright, rf, 2-1-0-0; Stavn, p-2b, 0-0-0-0. Totals: 33-9-13-8.

Parker (ab-r-h-rbi)—Beyer, cf, 4-3-3-1; Scharenbroch, 2b-p, 3-1-1-0; Morris, p-3b, 2-0-1-1; Meehan, 1b, 4-1-1-2; Jacobson, ss, 4-0-0-0; Koel, rf, 2-0-1-0; Mauermann, dh, 4-0-1-0; Hesser, c, 4-0-1-0; Teubert, 3b-p-2b, 3-1-1-1; Larson, rf, 4-0-0-0. Totals: 34-6-10-5.

Janesville Craig 104 220 0—9

Janesville Parker 011 013 0—6

E—Craig 1, Parker 1. LOB—Craig 8, Parker 9. SAC—Stavn. SF—Morris. SB—Olin. 2B—Foss, Whalen, Beyer, Meehan. HR—Beyer.

IP H R ER BB SO

Janesville Craig

Yaucher (W) 4 6 3 2 1 4

Stavn 2 3 3 3 2 3

Foss (S) 1 0 0 0 0 2

Janesville Parker

Morris (L) 2 1/3 7 5 5 1 2

Teubert 2 4 4 4 2 0

Scharenbroch 2 2/3 2 0 0 0 2