Tigers Win Season Opener at Midland, 6-2

  WYOMING - Four days after seeing their 2018 season opener at Maquoketa get postponed due to weather, the Tipton baseball team finally got the new season underway last Friday, at Midland. There, the Tigers captured the first season-opening baseball win in over ten years with a 6-2 win

  Tipton trailed 1-0 after four innings. The Tigers had scoring chances early in the game. The Tigers stranded runners at second and third in the second inning and stranded runners at the corners in the third. In the first four innings, Tipton left five runners on base, three in scoring position.

  The Tigers finally broke through in the top of the fifth. Tipton batted around in the order and put up four runs, to take a 4-1 lead. Nile Schuett walked to start the fifth and advanced to second on a Mesick single. Both advanced a base on a sac bunt by Trent Pelzer. Logan Hoffman walked to load the bases. Dylan Mente was hit by a pitch, scoring the first run of the inning and tying the game at 1-1. Ben Emrich then smacked a 2-run single scoring Mesick and Hoffman to give Tipton a 3-1 lead. Mente would later score in the inning to push the Tiger lead to 4-1. Midland scored a run in the fifth to set the score at 4-2 after five innings.

  Tipton added a run in the top of the sixth on a solo home run off the bat of Quinten Mesick to extend the Tigers lead to 5-2. Mesick would finish the game with two hits. The Tigers would extend their lead to 6-2 with a single run in the top of the seventh.

  Luke Becker was the winning pitcher after staring and working five innings. He struck out six, walked two and gave up two hits. Bryce Deerberg pitched the final two innings in relief. Deerberg did not allow a run, gave up one hit and struck out four of the eight batters he faced.

  The Eagles came into the game having already played four games with Tri-Rivers conference doubleheaders against state-ranked North Linn and Alburnett, all losses. Austin Smith drove in both Eagle runs with a 2-RBI double. Fisher Bisinger and Britan Martens had the other hits. The Eagles stole four bases in the game, three by Martens.

  Martens started the game pitching and lasted two innings before being lifted for Austin Smith took the loss after three innings of relief. He gave up four Tipton runs on four hits and walked three batters. Wilson Buckwalter pitched the final two innings.

  Tipton had nine hits in the game. Emrich led Tipton going 3-for-4 with 2 RBI’s. Mesick was 2-for-5 with an RBI while Hoffman, Luke Becker, Deerberg and Schuett each had hits. Mente and Schuett each had RBI’s.



The Tigers travel to Northeast Tuesday and are home Thursday against Bellevue and next Monday against Mid-Prairie in their first RVC South doubleheader of the season.