Hinckley Takes Down Nowthen in 7 Innings

The Hinckley Knights hosted the Nowthen Knights on Wednesday evening.

It was a battle of the Knights, as each team of course looked for a win. But both came in at different points in their season, Hinckley having played 9 games and won their last two, while Nowthen had only played 2 games and lost both.

Hinckley was also looking for their 3 Eastern Minny League win of the season. It was a great start to the game for Hinckley. A quick top of the 1st lead to their offense getting their chance. It started with back to back triples, a leadoff for Max Sickler and an RBI for Sam Haugen. Cory Schmidt would hit a sac fly RBI to bring home the 2nd run and take a 2-0 lead into the next inning. Once again the defense made quick work to get out of the top of the inning, and the Hinckley offense was back to work. Their offense would score 4 more runs on 4 hits, thanks to Bryce Hipp and Sickler RBI's. The 3rd inning saw their offense continue to dominate, with 7 runs on 5 hits, thanks in large part to a three run home run from Haugen with Sickler and Hipp adding on a few more RBI's to take a 13-0 lead heading into the 4th inning. Hinckley allowed only one hit but this time on offense they had to face a new pitcher. And for the first time in the game Hinckley was held without a hit in an inning. In the 5th, Nowthen was able to breakthrough and score a run off of two hits, breaking up the shutout. Hinckley needed now three runs to try and end the game early with the 15 run rule. They would score 2 runs off of 3 hits but were unable to score the third. Neither team scored in the 6th and the 7th and final inning was upon us. The ten run rule comes into affect in the 7th and it seemed like it was game set match for Nowthen. But they weren't going down without a fight, they came back and managed to score 2 runs on three hits with only one out in the inning. It quickly looked like, at the very least, Nowthen was going to force the game to go all 9 innings. But Hinckley was able to work and get the final two outs needed to finish the game with the win 15-3.

The Knights get back to .500 at 5-5, and are 3-0 in league play. They'll host Chisago Lakes on Friday and Cambridge on Saturday.

Pitching

Hinckley:

Dylan Marciulonis 3 innings, 2 hits, 1 walk, 4 K's

Cody Gustafson 4 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 4 K's