Miller baseball wins two games last week, Lady Cardinals softball defeat Strafford

The Miller High School baseball team traveled to Mountain View on Saturday, March 21 to take part in the Champs Fitness Wood Bat Tournament.
 
In their first game of the day the Cardinals defeated Thayer 7-3. Owen Weiss was the winning pitcher, going four innings, allowing two hits, while striking out six. Hayden Schnake had two hits and an RBI and Paul Nunez and Kegan Krempges each had a hit and an RBI.
 
“We started off really slow offensively,” said Head Coach Jeff Lung. “But we put up a seven-run inning to retake the lead late. Getting the first win of the season takes a bunch of pressure off and we can now play loose.” 
 
In their second game of the day, Miller defeated Portageville, 5-2. Schnake was the winning pitcher this time around, going five innings allowing four hits with five strike outs. Nunez had two hits and two RBIs, Jase Wilkenson and Hayden Brown both had a hit and an RBI in the win.
 
“We had another slow start offensively,” said Lung. “But our pitching and defense kept us in the game long enough to explode for a really long inning for their start and pushing five runs across. Proud of the boy’s effort and competitiveness this weekend against three really good teams.” 
 
The Cardinals opened their season by traveling to East Newton on Friday, March 20, but lost 2-1 in eight innings. Wilkenson went five innings and struck out 12, Krempges had two hits and Nathan Cunningham had a hit.
 
“We lost a tough competitive game in the eighth inning,” said Lung. “We didn’t execute when we had runners in scoring position but proud of how we competed.
 
Miller is 2-1 on the season and were scheduled to travel to Jasper tomorrow night and Spokane on Friday.
 
Softball
 
The Lady Cardinals softball team traveled to Strafford on Friday night and came home with a 10-7 win.
 
Both teams scored three runs in the first inning, but Miller added two runs in the top of the third inning to take a 5-3 lead. The Lady Indians answered back with three runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 6-5 lead. Miller scored single runs in the fourth and fifth inning to tie the game 7-7. Miller put the game away with a three-run sixth inning.
 
The Lady Cardinals are 1-0 on the season and were scheduled to have a busy week with games in Lamar on Monday before hosting Greenfield last night and then traveling to Hollister tomorrow night and Pleasant Hope on Friday and Saturday as they compete in the Pleasant Hope Early Bird Softball Tournament.