Red Devils sweep home doubleheader against Bayfield

IRONWOOD - The Ironwood Red Devils swept both ends of a doubleheader from Bayfield on Tuesday at Lorenson Field. Ironwood took game one 20-10 and downed the Trollers in the nightcap 15-4.

Game One

Ironwood 20, Bayfield 10

Ironwood scored 11 runs in the sixth inning to double up Bayfield 20-10 in the first game of a doubleheader at Longyear Field on Tuesday. The game ended on the 10-run mercy rule.

Scoring three runs in the top of the sixth inning, Bayfield had taken a 10-9 lead.

But the Red Devils sent 15 batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth as the hit parade started with Brett Ossanna's single down the left-field line and continued with four straight hits from Matt Dary, Josh Joki, Anthony Wiemeri and Desmond Sackmann.

Shawn Pertile and Aaron Hoff walked and Zach Combs singled sharply to center. Jon Clemens and Ossanna roped RBI singles and Dary drew a walk.

Joki, who is batting clean-up as a freshman, was walked and Wiemeri followed with another single. Sackmann's single brought in the 11th and final run.

"We came into the game short-handed with guys hurt and other guys gone," Red Devil coach Dan Niemi said. "We only had two subs. They had a lot of errors (7) and we had some (5). But the kids finally responded and we finally put the 11 runs on the board. We took advantage of their mistakes and could steal at will."

Despite the lop-sided loss, Bayfield coach Todd Mueske chose to see the silver lining in the gray clouds.

"The guys actually played pretty well," Mueske said. "This is only our third game of the season, so we're pretty inexperienced. We just need to get more experience by playing more games. We stayed right with them until the sixth inning when Ironwood started to hit and they can really hit the ball."

Ironwood catcher, Jon Clemens, said that although he was on base four times in four at-bats, he was in a slump and even when he hit the ball well, it was right at a fielder.

"I'm not hitting the ball as well as I could be," Clemens said. "We all seem to be hitting it hard right to people. Dary is the one who is really hitting dingers. But we'll come out of it. We played well today. There are some things we have to work on in the field such as errors. Yeah, we are going to get going."

The Trollers and Ironwood both scored a run in the first inning and were blanked in inning two.

But Ironwood's starting pitcher, Desmond Sackmann, was plagued by bouts of wildness with five walks and two hit batters and left after two and 2/3 innings and after giving up four unearned runs (three earned).

Down 4-1, the Red Devils struck back in the bottom of the third. Clemens, who can be an igniter at the top of the batting order, hit a low-liner to centerfield for a single and then Ossanna was hit by a pitch. Dary, who has been stinging the ball lately, turned and burned on a pitch that landed right in front the 312 foot sign on the left field fence. Clemens and Ossanna scored.

Joki dropped a single in front of the rightfielder and Dary came around to score.

In the fourth inning, Joki laced a two-out single to right field that knocked in two runs and gave Ironwood a 9-7 advantage.

Jeff Krisik led Bayfield's hitting by going 2 for 3 with three RBIs.

Ossanna, Sackmann and Joki were Ironwood's top guns by connecting on three hits. Dary stroked three RBIs.

Ossanna relieved Sackmann and pitched one-third of an inning. Wiemeri finished up the final three innings and picked up the win. He gave up two earned runs but walked only one while striking out two.

Christian Flores took the loss surrendering 15 runs (12 earned) in two and two-thirds innings of work.

Bayfield 1 0 3 3 0 3 - 10 6 7

Ironwood 1 0 4 4 0 (11) - 20 15 5

Game 2

Ironwood 15, Bayfield 4

Ironwood swept Bayfield in the doubleheader and won game two in much the same manner as in game one-with the 10-run mercy rule after six innings.

The Red Devils scored in five of the six innings and carved out a 15-4 win over the Trollers.

Winning pitcher Desmond Sackmann pitched much better in the second game than the first. He went five innings and only gave up two runs while scattering five hits. He walked four Trollers while whiffing two batters.

Brett Ossanna and Tony Wiemeri each pitched one inning in relief.

The Red Devils tagged Troller pitcher Matthew Nelson for 15 runs (13 earned) and pounded out 14 hits. He also walked nine and recorded only one strikeout.

Bayfield's Kevin Leask was a perfect 4-4 at the plate and the rest of the Trollers had only two hits.

Sackmann, Joki and Pertile each had three hits in the game to lead Ironwood's offensive assault.

Ironwood has won its last three games and its record stands at 4-3. They are 3-1 in the Indianhead Conference.

The Devils host Drummond in another conference game on Thursday at 4:30.

Ironwood 1 0 2 3 1 5 3 - 15 14 4

Bayfield 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 - 4 6 7