Eagles split early-week GNC action

The Northland Pines baseball team played two very big Great Northern Conference (GNC) games at home early this week.

The Eagles won an exciting 2-1 pitcher’s duel over Mosinee on Tuesday after being outslugged by Medford 18-12 on Monday.

“Our defense was flawless and our pitching incredible against Mosinee,” stated coach Peter Aerts. “Winning pitcher Aiden Minx was dominant after the first two innings, then really turned it on with all his pitches the rest of the way.”

Reliever Jonah Will had electric stuff and got the save. He worked around two seventh-inning singles, throwing ten strikes on 13 pitches with the game on the line.

“When you have pitching performances like that, it’s obvious your catcher is also on top of his game, and Griffin Beyer did a great job keeping a great Mosinee offense off balance,” Aerts said.

The Eagles managed six hits for the game and got their two runs in the fourth inning as Brody Hoeft ripped a double to score Minx, and a hit by Beyer sent Will home and it was enough to secure the one-run win.

A day prior, Medford pounced on the Eagles early and held a commanding 8-0 lead in the second inning.

“In the Medford game, both teams came to hit, and it really came down to who would play better defense to limit the damage,” said Aerts.

“We had eight errors, which were uncharacteristic of us, but was still proud of how we battled.”

Oliver Weberg and Morgan Keranen got their first varsity pitching action to save the Eagles' pitching staff for the week.

“They both threw well and gave us a chance to get back into the game if we had played better defense,” stated Aerts.  

Getting back into it would prove to be tough as Pines was later down 12-5 after four innings and 17-8 after five. The Eagles kept the mercy rule from going into effect, but lost by six.

Offensively, Nolan Huelskamp helped lead the way with two runs, three hits and two RBI. Griffin Beyer scored three runs and Aiden Minx had three hits.

The Eagles came through the two key games with an overall record of 15-8 and 10-4 in the GNC.

The team is scheduled to play at Tomahawk tomorrow, Thursday, May 21, at 5 p.m. A game at Hurley this coming Friday was cancelled.