WHS BASEBALL: Trojans slay Dragons 9-5

ADRIAN — The Worthington baseball team improved to 6-0 on the season with a win over Adrian on Thursday.

The Trojans broke a 4-all tie in the fifth inning and never looked back on their way to a 9-5 non-conference victory.

The win keeps Worthington undefeated and drops Adrian to 4-5 on the year.

“I had anticipated that this would be a tight game,” WHS coach Stacy Sauerbrei said. “Adrian is one of those teams that you know is going to play you tough. And they certainly gave us a good ballgame today. Those were two talented teams out on the field.”

Worthington got off to a quick start, scoring four runs in the first inning.

Lucas Henning hit a single, Tommy Hayenga hit a double and Blake Rogers walked to load the bases for the Trojans with no outs in the inning.

With one out, Rylan Scholtes hit single to right-center field to bring in Henning from third and load the bases once again. Turner Hagen followed up with a two-RBI single to right and Tyler Verdoorn followed suit with an RBI single to right to make the score 4-0.

The Dragons added a run in the second and three runs in the third inning on RBIs from Adam Garms, Mitchell Sieve and Jake Tiede to tie the game at 4-all.

But after a scoreless fourth inning, Worthington scored runs in each of the final three innings to take the game.

“We’re fortunate that we came out on top of this one,” Sauerbrei said. “If just a few things had gone differently, it would’ve easily been Adrian’s game.”

In the fifth inning, Tanner Rogers scored on an RBI double from Verdoorn. Verdoorn later scored on sacrifice fly from Aaron Pavelko to make the score 6-4.

In the sixth inning, Hayenga and Blake Rogers scored for Worthington on an RBI double to right from Jon Reller to make the score 8-4.

Adrian added a run in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice hit from Ben Mulder, making the score 8-5 entering the final inning of play.

An RBI single from Hayenga secured the 9-5 win for the Trojans.

Hayenga finished the game going 3-for-4 with a walk, an RBI, a double, a stolen base and two runs scored.

“Tommy Hayenga had a great day at the plate,” Sauerbrei said. “He’s a good hitter and always seems to put good metal on the ball. He comes through a lot for us in clutch situations. He put up a good effort for us today.”

Verdoorn was 2-for-2 with a double and two walks, Henning was 2-for-5 with a run scored, Hagen was 1-for-4 with two RBIs and Reller was 1-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs for Worthington.

At the plate, Adrian was led by Sieve (3-for-4 with three RBIs and a double) and Tiede, who had an RBI single.

AJ Tiesler picked up the loss for Adrian, pitching four innings of relief.

Deron Soderholm picked up the win for Worthington, tossing two innings in relief of Nate Jensen, Aaron Pavelko and Blake Rogers.

“A lot of kids pitched for us today, but those kids did some good things for us,” Sauerbrei said. “Deron finished the game for us. He had strong command the whole time he was on the mound. Aaron Pavelko made his first varisty appearance on the mound for us and he went up there and got us out of a tough situation. They did a good job.”

Worthington’s next game is today against New Ulm. Adrian takes on Murray County Central on Tuesday.

With the season off to an excellent start for the Trojans, the team can only hope its luck continues. And with the camaraderie among the athletes, the morale shouldn’t be going down anytime soon.

“I think the biggest thing today, and it’s been the biggest thing all season for us, is that the guys are picking each other up,” Sauerbrei said. “They get each other out of jams and are always trying to pick up their buddies. That’s what’s helping us play some good baseball.”

R H E

WHS 400 022 1 – 9 12 0

Adrian 013 001 0 – 5 4 2

Daily Globe Sports Reporter Jocelyn Syrstad can be reached at 376-7335.

Tags: sports, prep, trojans, baseball, adrian