LocalSportsJournal.com
CUSTER — Errors doomed the Mason County Eastern baseball team’s chances of overtaking White Cloud in the MHSAA Division 4 district on the Cardinals’ field on Friday afternoon in Custer and suffered a 17-0 defeat.
The Cardinals were guilty of seven miscues in the field, and most of them contributed directly to runs being scored. The third inning was particularly tough for the Cardinals, as they committed three fielding gaffes in that frame.
White Cloud, which had taken a slim 1-0 lead at the end of the first, broke the game open with five runs in the third and the Cardinals weren’t able to recover.
Cardinals pitcher Wyatt Crawford worked four-plus innings, giving up nine earned runs and 14 in all, on seven hits, four walks, a hit batter and struck out nine.
James Drake was called on to finish the five-inning game.
Eastern didn’t produce any offense to speak of, being held to just three hits. Crawford had two of them while Zach Howe had the other.
Only three seniors graduate off this year’s Cardinal team … Crawford, Keegan Bates and Eli Shoup.
The Cardinals finished 11-14 on the season, a comedown from last year when they took second in the Western Michigan D League and made it to the regional semifinals.
A silver lining for the Cardinals is that they were a young team this spring, with a ton of freshmen and sophomores filling the roster.
White Cloud next competes in the regional tournament at Holton next Saturday.
