CARDINAL—Longtime rivals Cardinal and Berkshire split a pair of games on Friday at Cardinal High School.
The host Huskies scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to defeat the Badgers on the baseball diamond while Berkshire’s softball team scored a 15-3 win over the Huskies in softball.
“Berkshire and Cardinal is what it is,” said Cardinal baseball coach Seth Klepper. “It’s a rivalry and you never know what could happen. You can never take them too easily and (Berkshire pitcher Chris Mogret) came out and pitched a heck of a game. That was amazing. That kid just stuck it to us. It came down to one inning and we were lucky enough to get those couple of runs across all on a couple walks and the theft of a bag on a pickle.”
Cardinal managed just three hits and one walk off Morgret heading into the sixth inning.
That’s when Brice Hogue drew a leadoff walk and stole his way to third base.
Cam Klepper then walked and immediately after touching first bases headed for second. The Badgers caught Klepper in a rundown then threw to the plate but it was too late as Hogue already had given the Huskies a 1-0 lead.
“It was kind of just a point and go type of thing,” Coach Klepper said. “Their infield was in so they can’t really see much and Coach (Bill) Poole pointed to second. We really stole one from them today.”
Cam Klepper, who moved to second on the throw home, scored on Matt Carney’s single.
Carney, who had allowed just three hits and struck out eight in six innings, was injured on the play and left the game.
Justin Shank pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning to save the win for the Huskies, who improved to 7-10 on the year.
“He struggled in the beginning but got us out of a lot of jams,” Coach Klepper said of Carney. “The defense played OK but it was very stressful. You think it’s going to be 1-2-3 and it’s not. He was having trouble finding the zone. He got hurt, which was a bummer, but Shank came in and he’s been a resourceful freshman for us all year. He came in and threw pretty good.”
Carney finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and Justin Byler and Brian Westover also had hits for the Huskies.
Jacob Brown was 2-for-2 for Berkshire.
Berkshire’s softball team used a four-run first inning to take early control of their game against the Huskies and put it out of reach with an eight-run third.
Hailey Gifford was 3-for-3 with three RBI and Cheyanne Bosse and Meghan McKeogh both finished with two hits and four RBI for the Badgers.
Bosse also struck out seven in five innings.
Hannah Hill had a hit and two RBI for the Huskies. Sarah Hogue and Hanna Traggiai also had hits for Cardinal.
