A-K Valley baseball notebook: Plum captures back-to-back section victories in exciting fashion

By: Greg Macafee
Thursday, April 15, 2021 | 9:07 PM

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The Plum Mustangs have gotten off to a perfect section start, and they’ve done so in a dramatic way.

After two wins over Armstrong on April 3 to start their section schedule, the Mustangs earned two comeback victories over Mars this past week to stay undefeated in Section 2-5A play.

On Monday, the Mustangs (4-1, 4-0) were no-hit through six innings before tallying four hits and scoring four runs in the seventh inning to take a 5-1 lead. Mars catcher Teddy Ruffner ended up hitting a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, but Justin Giarusso shut the door on the Fightin Planets (4-3, 3-3) with a groundout and lineout.

Colin Solinski earned the win for the Mustangs as he pitched 6 1/3 innings of five-hit ball and struck out eight.

The Mustangs completed the two-game sweep Tuesday when Caden Norcutt hit a walk-off double with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to plate the winning runs. Brady Dojonovic hit a home run and drove in three runs in the game while also earning the win on the mound.

Plum is back at it Friday with a matchup against undefeated Class 5A Franklin Regional. It also plays a section series against Woodland Hills at the beginning of next week.

One Batter Away

In a four-inning outing against Burrell on Monday, Knoch senior Brayden Hageter was one walk away from throwing a perfect game.

The quick-working right-hander faced the minimum number of batters through four innings, but a walk to Burrell’s Reese Kennedy in the third inning ended his perfect bid. Catcher Eli Sutton threw Kennedy out when he attempted to steal second during the next at-bat.

Hageter finished with six strikeouts as the Knights won 15-0.

Protecting home field

One day after dropping a 10-5 section matchup against Indiana (5-1-1, 3-1 Section 1-4A), the Highlands Golden Rams (4-3, 3-1) handed the Indians their first loss of the season.

Junior right-hander Tanner Nulph allowed four hits in five innings while striking out five and walking one. But after facing a few batters in the top of the sixth inning, Nulph was pulled and Jimmy Kunst came in to shut the door for a 5-2 victory.

Luke Beer tallied two hits, a double, and one RBI in the victory as the Indians and Golden Rams share second in the section behind undefeated North Catholic.

Comeback Kids

The Riverview Raiders (4-2, 3-1 Section 3-A) handed the Eden Christian Warriors (5-1, 1-1) their first loss of the season earlier this week, as well.

After scoring three runs in the first inning, the Raiders were held scoreless until the seventh inning. The Warriors took a 6-3 lead after scoring one run in the third, three in the fourth and two in the fifth. But the Raiders scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning as Dan Roupas tallied the winning hit in a 7-6 victory.

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Highlands, Knoch, Plum, Riverview