The 1-2 Knights host the 1-0 Ellsworth Hubbers under the lights tonight at 7:30pm. The Knights are coming off a tough 4-6 loss caused by one inning of bad bounces and shaky defense and a few base running blunders. If the home team can smooth out some of the small ball mistakes they should have no problem bouncing back with a win and moving to 2-0. Many college players return for tonight's game so it will be a great chance to catch up and play some good baseball under the lights.
The Knights earn first come-from-behind victory of the season. Move to 2-2.
A tough Ellsworth Hubbers team traveled to town looking to continue their early season success with a road victory against the Knights. The Knights would jump out to an early lead behind 4 runs and Danny Thering's 4 innings of shutout work on the mound. Danny would strike out 3 and allow only 1 hit in his effort.
Adam King would come in the game for relief and showed a little rust, which is expected this early in the season. He would go 2 innings and not give up any hits. Unfortunately, he would allow 4 free passes which would all score due to the combination of stolen bases and wild pitches. Still, it was a decent outing this early in the season which showed great signs of things to come if the walks can be cut down.
Going into the 7th inning the Knights still had a 5-4 lead backed by a Frank Matteson double that was kept in the park by some heavy winds, a pair of singles from Cory Hazard, and a pair of hits from first-year Knight Gareth Oakes. Christian Zellner would come in third on the mound with a close game up for grabs.
Zellner would also show some early season rust and struggled early with keeping his pitches down. He would allow 2 runs in the top of the 7th giving the Hubbers their first lead of the game. In the 8th Zellner would settle down and begin to find the zone but the Hubbers would score again on a couple of infield errors padding their lead to 7-5. The Knights would respond with a clutch 2-out RBI single from Steve Thompson and a bases loaded HBP by Dan Piilola to force in the tying run.
Zellner would shut the Hubbers down in the top of the 9th giving the Knights the chance they needed. Colton Smit would start things off with a well placed bunt single, showing off his speed down the line. Smit advanced to second on a pitch in the dirt, and Matt Seiler was walked. Gareth Oakes, acquired from Stillwater in the offseason, would come to the plate with an opportunity to win the game. Oakes would line a single to left and with Smit's speed on the base paths he was able to score standing up, giving the Knights the walk-off win they battled hard to earn and giving Zellner his first win of the season. Oakes finished the game with 3 hits on the night. Other noteable stats were TJ Mayer finishing 1 for 1 (with a SF) with 2 RBIs.