COLONY — Crest High didn’t let the sting of losing an eight-game winning streak linger Tuesday.
After a rally came up achingly short in a 6-5 defeat to visiting Olpe, the Lancers responded in a big way in the second game of their doubleheader, rolling to a 17-7 win.
The split puts Crest at 9-3. The Lancers were at Marmaton Valley Thursday, but those games were not complete by press time.
Olpe took full advantage of Crest’s misadventures in the field in the top of the first of Game 1, scoring four runs on four errors, a pair of walks (and no hits). Crest almost replicated the feat, loading the bases on two errors and a walk in the bottom of the first, but did not score.
Crest settled down defensively, and kept threatening to score, stranding runners in scoring position in both the second and third innings, before breaking through in the fourth on a Kade Nilges RBI grounder.
The deficit stood at 5-1 before Brayden Goodwell walked and Jerry Rodriguez and Henry White singled to open the Crest half of the fifth. Drake Weir singled in a run and Rogan Weir drew a bases-loaded walk to close the gap to 5-3. Ryan Golden’s follow-up single brought home two to tie the game.
But the Lancers again left runners on second and third when the rally ended.
Olpe took advantage of a two-out fielding error to score the tie-breaking run in the top of the seventh.
As was the case through much of the early going, Crest again threatened to score after Zander Robb reached on a walk and White singled with two outs, but the rally, and game, ended on a ground ball.
White, Golden and Rodriguez each singled twice, while Drake Weir, and Jensen Barker had singles.
Rogan Weir struck out four and allowed three hits and zero earned runs on the mound. Golden pitched 2.2 innings, striking out six and allowing three hits. Robb retired the only batter he faced.
CREST had no such issues in getting two-out hits in Game 2.
Rogan Weir singled with two outs before back-to-back doubles from Golden and Logan Kisner staked the Lancers to a 2-0 lead.White’s two-out double in the second brought home Roy Gordon to make it 3-0 in the second.
Olpe found its offense in the top of the fourth, scoring five times to take a 5-3 lead, but Crest didn’t take long to respond.
Three straight walks to open the bottom of the fourth loaded the bases. Kistner walked to drive in a run before Nilges smacked a two-run single to push the Lancers back on top, 6-5. Robb’s bases-loaded walk added another run, and Rodriguez’s RBI grounder made it 8-5.
