Trojans dull Arrows, 10-6

WORTHINGTON -- With Worthington trailing by a run in the bottom of the fifth, Trojan Derek Busswitz came up with two runners on and two outs in the inning.

The Trojan third baseman hit a long triple into right field to drive in two runs and later scored on the play -- giving Worthington a 9-6 lead en route to a 10-6 victory over Pipestone Area Tuesday in a Southwest Conference baseball clash.

"I was seeing the ball really well," Busswitz said. "I started off the year really slow and cold, and I needed a big one, and today I got it."

After taking a 4-0 lead, Worthington surrendered a run in the fourth and five runs in the top of the fifth as the Arrows (3-1, 4-2) had a 6-4 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.

Matt King (3-for-3, two RBI) led off the inning with a single, and Steven Kremer (2-for-4, 3 RBI) followed with another single.

Mitch Jensen executed a sacrifice bunt to advance the runner, and Kyle Vaske was hit with a pitch to load the bases.

Brandon Schroeder hit a long sacrifice fly to score King and bring the Trojans (3-3, 4-4) back within a run.

It was then that Busswitz came to the plate with a chance to be a hero.

"(I wasn't feeling) any pressure at all," Busswitz said. "I was pretty mad that I struck out in my first at bat, so I needed to come back with a big clutch hit for my team."

The junior delivered for Worthington, and after an errant throw, was able to score on the play as the Trojans took a 9-6 lead.

"Our hitting was much more clutch today than it's been," Worthington head coach Pat Shaughnessy said. "I thought we did a much better job at the plate today, and we didn't strike out as nearly as many times as we have been."

Travis Meinders, who did not have an official at bat in the game walked for the fourth time to start the sixth inning for Worthington, and later scored on a Kremer groundout to secure a 10-6 victory for the Trojans, handing the Arrows their first conference loss.

"We were throwing the ball around and not knocking it down," PA head coach Rick Zollner said. "We had a couple of opportunities to throw guys out at home plate. Mentally, we need to get a lot better."

As Worthington scored the final runs of the game, it was also the Trojans who got on the board first.

Mike Vorwald led off the game with a single, and after Meinders (two runs) walked, King drove in Vorwald to give Worthington a 1-0 lead.

"Everyone hit the ball today," King said. "With 10 runs, we need to do that every game."

Trojan starter Joe Ahrens (four innings, four runs, six strikeouts) was able to subdue the Arrow bats in the first three innings until Worthington was able to score more in the bottom of the third frame.

With one out, Meinders walked, and Ahrens was hit with a pitch to put two runners on. King drove in Meinders with a single, and Ahrens and King would both score on Kremer's single to push the Trojan lead to 4-0.

However, the Arrows were not going quietly. After Ahrens issued four straight walks in the fourth to allow a run, the PA bats came alive in the fifth.

Trailing 5-1, PA's Brandon Alfson hit a single to start a run of seven straight hits for the Arrows, as PA chased Ahrens in the process.

"They had seven hits in a row one time, so if they are hitting our best pitchers and scoring runs that way, you can live with that," Shaughnessy said. "We didn't have the bad inning defensively like we've had, or the lapse like we did at Marshall."

King entered in relief and allowed three straight hits before retiring the side.

"I just wanted to get in there and throw strikes and get some guys out," King said. "I threw pretty decent, but they just hit me in the first inning."

Nine Arrows hit in the inning as Chris Dougherty provided a big two-run single to give PA a 6-4 lead.

"I thought we did a nice job coming back from being down 5-1," Zollner said. "We had a nice inning where we did a lot of things right. We hit the ball and ran the bases decent, but we kind of messed up on a couple of at bats at the end where we could have maybe pushed a run or two more across."

Outside of the seven consecutive hits for the Arrows in the fifth, PA's only other hit came from Doug Mead in the first at bat of the game.

"When you get on a bus and you drive and you get over somewhere, and you don't have any swings, usually it takes you at least one at bat (to get going)," Zollner said. "It took us some time to warm up, and we got going a little bit. But when King came in, he did a nice job, and he was around the strike zone enough that we couldn't really tee it up."

King earned the victory, allowing one run on three hits, while striking out four and walking a lone Arrow.

"This is a big win in the conference because they haven't lost in the conference yet," King said.

PA will travel to Windom Thursday for a conference doubleheader, while Worthington will travel to Montevideo Friday for a tournament. The Trojans will face Lakeview in the first game.

R H E

PA 000 150 0 -- 6 8 4

WHS 103 141 X -- 10 8 0