Five-inning drubbing by Cook County puts clamp on Cromwell-Wright baseball

Over the past couple weeks, the Cromwell-Wright baseball team has been playing some of their best ball in years. The Cardinals beat McGregor and even gave Cotton a run for their money on the road, but that didn’t happen against Cook County Saturday.

Halted by their inability to throw strikes, make outs and find timely hitting, Cromwell-Wright’s season came to an end in a 13-1 mercy rule loss to the Vikings in the first round of the Section 7A playoffs in Grand Marais.

“We just didn’t have an answer for them,” said Cardinals coach Terry Sawdey. “They really hit the ball and the middle of their lineup really tore us up that day.”

Junior Mike Hedin started on the hill Saturday for the Cardinals. However, struggles throughout the first two innings led to 10 runs for Cook County. Hedin took the loss.

“We struggled a little bit in the pitching department,” recalled Sawdey. “We simply just couldn’t find the plate.”

Hedin was replaced by senior Dustin Byer, who hurled a pair of scoreless innings, before Sawdey allowed fellow senior Cole Johnson to pitch the last inning of the season.

“It was the first time he’d ever pitched,” said Sawdey. “He told me that he had always wanted to, so I thought it’d be nice to give a senior that opportunity in his last game ever. And that was nice to watch. He gave up three runs, but was just fine.”

Sawdey said their main goal was to make the game a memorable one for their four seniors. In addition to Byer’s pitching, Johnson picked up one of the Cardinals’ five hits, while John Schliauter laced a base hit and Ryan Hutar scored the only run on the afternoon.

“The seniors played well,” said Sawdey, “and I think they had a fun time.”

Adding hits for Cromwell-Wright (1-15) Saturday was junior Greg Purcell, eight-grader Dean Johnson and seventh-grader Jake Krezowski.

“This is a great group of kids,” he said. “We’ve had some really rough games this year and the program has really been through some struggles. But this bunch really does love the game and worked hard this season.”

Their lone win came against the McGregor Mercuries just over two weeks ago. Sawdey said it was the highlight of their season.

“Now, our main focus is on next year and getting more kids to come out and play,” Sawdey said. “We want to continue to grow this program because we have a young building core, we just need a little support.”

Tags: sports, baseball, cromwell, wright