Unity Christian Closes Out Close Contest With Clarinda With Three Run Sixth Inning to Advance to 3A Baseball Quarterfinal
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Class 2A State Baseball Tournament – Quarterfinals
Unity Christian6
Clarinda2
Unity Christian and Clarinda battled for a spot in the semifinal round of the Class 2A state baseball tournament and it was the Knights of Unity Christian with a three run sixth inning to win it Tuesday morning.
Clarinda started off the game on offense and got Wyatt Schmitt over to second base off an error at first, but he was stranded there, unable to score. Unity Christian got a lucky break in the first as Tanner Schouten was stuck between second and third, but a throwing error at third allowed him to get home to score for the Knights, giving them the early 1-0 lead. Clarinda responded in the top of the second with a run of their own thanks to Jon McCall crushing an RBI single to score Cole Baumgart, tying the ballgame at 1-1.
Unity Christian had a runner in scoring position at third, but couldn’t bring him home due to a 6-4 putout at second for out three by Clarinda. The Cardinals continued to ride that momentum into the top of the third inning with another runner scored, this time scored by Cooper Neal off an RBI single, giving Clarinda the 2-1 lead. The Knights didn’t let that lead last long as they got Clayton Bosma home off a Clarinda wild pitch in the bottom of the third, tying the game again at 2-2. Unity Christian started to swing the game back in their favor after that score in the third inning. They shut down Clarinda in the top of the fourth going three up and three down, and taking back the lead in the bottom of the fourth. The Cardinals were trying to tag out Jacob Dragstra at third, but the ball was thrown out of play, allowing Unity Christian to move runners around two bases and scoring one to lead 3-2.
Unity Christian’s defense came alive in the fifth and sixth innings, getting the first three batters out in the fifth and pulling out a double play to prevent Clarinda from scoring the tying run in the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth, the Knights got the bases loaded up thanks to errors caused by Clarinda and ended up with three more runs added to their total. Braeden Bosma got home easily while Jacob Van Donge and Schouten had to run the bases quickly to beat the Clarinda defense’s last-out at third off a 6-5 forceout. Unity Christian saw some resistance from Clarinda in the top of the seventh as the Cardinals got runners on first and third, but the Knights got the final out off a strikeout to defeat Clarinda 6-2.
Clarinda’s season comes to an end with a final record of 18-12. Unity Christian moves on to Wednesday’s Semifinal match where they will face the winner of Van Meter and Davis County. That semifinal match will be played at 6 pm instead of the originally scheduled time of 4:30 due to the excessive heat that day.
