MANKATO — Mankato East senior right-hander Riston Wojcik’s first-inning frustrations continued Monday at Wolverton Field.
However, the Cougars erased a 5-0 deficit to get past Winona 13-8 in a weather-shortened Big Nine Conference game. Game 2 was postponed and will be played on Tuesday, May 16.
East (7-5, 6-3 in Big Nine) took advantage of the Winhawks’ inconsistency on the mound to tally four runs in the third, three in each of the fourth and fifth innings and five in the sixth and final frame. In all, four Winona pitchers allowed 11 hits, seven walks, four hit batters and eight wild pitches.
“We weren’t ready to play today,” East coach Micah Degner said. “Winona did what they needed to do early in the game by putting the ball in play hard. We’re a better team than that but give them credit. We still haven’t put together a complete game yet. We’ve struggled a little bit with getting clutch hits with guys on base. We’ve left a lot of runners on base so it was good to see some two-out knocks with runners in scoring position.”
Wojcik, who allowed five earned runs over five innings while striking out seven and walking two, came up with a pair of two-run singles to pace the offense, while senior left fielder Easton Stangl collected two hits, three RBIs and scored three times. Senior catcher Dylan Kopesky chipped in two hits and knocked in a run while senior third baseman Cael Willaert and senior DH Logan Swalve both scored three runs.
“We’ve been joking that I need an opening pitcher because I just can’t find it in the first inning,” said Wojcik, who had 68 strikes amid 97 pitches. “I seem to dial in and start going to work after that. We’re always calm and collective because we know we have good hitters who can get rallies going. We had good eyes today to get a lot of walks and then we got some clutch base hits when we needed to. … I don’t care what happens at the plate when I pitch so maybe that helps me.”
After an error and walk got things going in the Winhawks’ first, Jonathon Heffman, Ashton Vaughn and Carson Jones each belted run-scoring doubles. Jake Larsen drove in the final run with a single before Wojcik struck out two to leave two runners stranded.
Tyler Kelner, Carter Shields, Vaughn and Jones banged out two hits apiece.
Wojcik’s two-run single sparked a four-run, third-inning surge for the Cougars before Stangl laced RBI singles in each of the fourth and fifth innings. Pinch-hitters Brennen Anderson and Brayden Borgmeier delivered RBI singles in the sixth before Ainsley Stubbs smacked a run-scoring double to deep left-center field.
“We just kept battling after they put up those five runs in the first,” Stangl said. “We were able to come back and fought through it. We just kept putting balls in play and were hitting with runners in scoring position. … We were looking for good pitches to hit and we were able to put the ball in play when the pitches were in the zone.”
East plays at Albert Lea on Tuesday.