Clarinda A's Baseball

Tuesday, July 17 the A’s hosted Chillicothe in a MINK League game and came out on top 4-3. Chillicothe had scored one in the second inning and two in the fourth and held Clarinda scoreless till the bottom of the seventh. Keving Mills led off the bottom of the inning with a double and scored on a single by Brian Taylor. Brooks Kimmey hit into a double play, but Brock Spangenberg walked, Leo Garcia reached on an error and both scored to tie the game on a double by Keith Hustedt who scored the go ahead run on a single by Brandon Mikkelson.  Starting pitcher for the A’s was Grant Campbell who went four innings. Andrew Cashner came on in the fifth and got the win, giving up only one hit and striking out 7 ikn the four innings he pitched. Frank Zenisek got the save in the ninth.

Wednesday Junction City came to town for a two day stand and the A’s won 6-5. The visitors scored two in the first inning and the A’s came back with three in their half when John Fugazi was hit by a pitch, Mikkelson singled and advanced to second on the throw. With two out on fly balls, both runners scored on a Taylor double. Junction City tied the game in the third and when ahead in their half of the fourth, but Clarinda the A’s went ahead in the bottom of the inning on a single by Grant Grgurich, a Middleson double and another double by Garcia. The visitors scored a single run in the fifth to again tie game and the final and winning run was scored in the bottom of the inning on a Mills homerun. A’s starter Todd Vogel was charged with all five runs, but got the win. Scott Chew, Kevin Dwyer and David Goodenough combined to shut Junction City out the rest of the way, with Goodenough getting the save.

Thursday saw Junction City come back to win a tight game in the ninth 3-2. Clarinda scored first in the second inning as Taylor reached on an error, Kimmey and Furquan Shamsud-din walked, with Taylor scoring on a ground out by Spangenberg. Junction City tied the game with a run in the fifth and the A’s went ahead again in the seventh on a single by Brandon Hayes who scored on a double by Jimmy Mittleberger. The Generals came back with the winning two runs in their half of the ninth and Clarinda could not answer. Brian Williams pitched the first five innings for the A’s with Sammy Miller coming in for two and Keith Spreckels getting the loss in Clarinda’s final regular season home game.

Friday the A’s were back on the road for their final MINK League game in Chillicothe. Clarinda scored first in the second inning with two outs when Taylor singled, Kimmey walked and both runners advanced on a wild pitch, scoring on a single by Garcia. The Mudcats tied in it their half of the inning. The A’s scored five in the fifth as Hustedt led off with a single, Hayes reached on an error, Bachofner singled and Hustedt scored when Mittleberger was hit by a pitch. Hayes scored on a walk to Mikkelson and Taylor had a sacrifice fly to score Bachofner. Mittleberger and Mikkelson both scored on a single by Garcia. Chillicothe was able to close the gap with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but the A’s added two more in the eighth as Grgurich and Hayes each singled, with Grgurich going to third on Hayes hit and scoring on a sacrifice fly by Bachofner, with Hayes scoring on double by Mikkelson. Clarinda’s pitchers were able to hold the Mudcats to just a single run in the  ninth for the 8-4 win.  Jason Gurka got the win for Clarinda throwing six innings. Kevin Dwyer, Wesley Griggs and Frank Zenisek, who got the save, each were on the mound for one inning.

Clarinda closed their regular season with a 39-15 overall record and were 19-11 in MINK League play.