Reds Climb Legion Standings After Weekend Sweep

Buoyed by a week of hard work following their Terry Jablonski Tournament championship, the Reds took four games out of four Thursday and Friday night, two apiece from league rival Lewistown Redbirds and the Richland County Patriots. Both of the games versus the latter ended with the 10-run mercy rule's taking effect after five innings.

"We knew coming in we had to get [wins]," said coach Jack Sprague.

Lewistown ambled into Sullivan Park seeking to avenge last Sunday's title game loss and cushion their lead atop the East Legion A standings; Reds game one starter Keil Krumweide, however, ascended the mound with a plan of his own. For seven innings he reigned tyrranic over the Redbirds' quavering bats, forcing a musty air of self-doubt down his opponents' gaping maws in the dust trail of each hurl. Krumweide melded both insult and injury into a bronze arrowhead which for 89 pitches he sent pinging at catcher Gage Legare's mitt as if the rawhide were a postage stamp in need of celeritous, red-seamed verification.

"[His pitching] set the tone as far as establishing we weren't going to give up runs," said Sprague

Both teams were held scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, when a Cutter Kolstad single, followed by a Ryan Padden sac bunt-turned-two-base error set the stage for Hunter Losleben's walk-off sacrifice fly.

In game two, an 8-3 victory, the Reds nullified Lewistown's two-run first inning with a five-run second. Krumweide gashed the inning open with a one-out grand slam, and, complemented by seven steadfast frames from starter Jason Thibault, the Glaswegians never looked back.

"He carried us this weekend for sure," said Sprague of Krumweide. "Hopefully we can get a little more balance offensively...[but] he's a top-line player."

Friday night's encounters versus Richland County held little suspense. Over 10 innings, the Reds outhit their opponents 24-15, out-pitched them in allowing just three earned runs, and and outscored them 28-8. Kasey Seyfert recorded 15 outs on just 67 pitches in game one, a minuscule sum considering the 1.60 WHIP he maintained over that span (7 H 1 BBs), while two more home runs from Krumweide accounted for six RBIs and added flourish to a fine weekend.

With the wins over Lewistown, the Reds closed the gap between the two teams at the top of the Legion standings to one game, and hold two games in hand.

"We're tied in the loss column," said Sprague, "which is basically all that matters."

While the results cast an aura of homefield dominance, the favorable box scores belie a duo of sloppy patterns. In total, the Reds committed nine errors; the one game in which their tally was not highter than their opponents', both teams muffed four plays each.

In addition, the Reds spotted their foes early leads, just as they did in Dickinson. Apart from the Lewistown shutout, the team gifted advantages of 2-0, 2-0, and 5-0 before revving its offensive engines into top gear.

Coach Sprague believes it's worthless to lose sleep ruminating over the physical origins of such things; he has, however, addressed the matter with his team on mental grounds.

Said Sprague: "We're working on it. There are possible issues with preparation, pitchers not [being] ready to perform. Giving up runs early is a little bit concerning. [But] the hitting will come; we grind it out. And errors happen. I'm not too concerned about [that]."

Despite a few marked shortcomings, the Reds' on-point pitching and sawed-off shotgun of an offense, however amalgamized, innundate the Sullivan Park outfield grass and allow Glasgow to harvest the fruits of their calculated, dogged labor.