CHILLY OPENER: Iron Mtn. Holds Off Gladstone

Click the thumbnails to see photos and video highlights taken by Brad Landis.

GLADSTONE---The Iron Mountain Mountaineers baseball team jumped to an 8-0 lead in the first two innings and held on to beat the Gladstone Braves, 9-8, in the season-opening game Tuesday afternoon in Gladstone. Mountaineer relief pitcher Zeke Runsat struck out Aeden Creten with the tying and winning runs in scoring position to end the game.

"I was getting pretty nervous," Runsat admitted. "I was shaking, but I got two strikes on him, and I was thinking, the worst thing I could do is throw it in the dirt. I was doing that early on, but then I started getting my release-point higher. It was our first game. We didn't get on the field until Sunday."

"We've been practicing in the gym. I had a few pitching errors because it was my first time on a mound since last year."

The game was played in 47-degree weather, but fortunately, there wasn't the usual Gladstone Sports Park wind.

There were still snowbanks on the outskirts of the field, but the Braves worked hard to at least get the field play ready to play, under the cloudy conditions.

Cam Kelly, who suffered a seere injury last October during a football game, gave it a go on the mound, throwing for the first time in a game. He had control problems, walking four batters and hitting another. He gave up a two-run single to left field off the bat of Beau Kralovec, and Evan Haferkorn had a squeeze bunt to drive in another as IM built a 5-0 lead.

They added three more runs in the second inning off reliever Tyler Darmogray, on two infield base hits and a pair of walks.

That gave IM starting pitcher Carson McLean an 8-0 lead to work with. He got out of a jam of his own in the first inning when he walked a batter, hit another, and committed an error on a ground ball before getting John Soderman on a called third strike.

The Braves ended four of the seven innings with called third strikes.

Gladstone scored four runs in the fourth inning against a tiring McLean, with Austin Bagwell getting the Braves'first hit on a pop fly to right field and Hunter Solis following with a solid RBI douible to center field. Cam Kelly's sacrafice fly helped to cut it to an 8-4 game.

Braden Sundquist came in to pitch for the Braves in the third inning and he kept the game winnable, throwing the final five innings, inlcuding two 1-2-3 innings. He allowed one run in the fifth inning after a fly ball that should've been caught landed for a base hit, and Lucas Maxon made the Braves pay with an RBI single to make it a 9-4 IM lead.

Runsat had pitched the fourth and fifth innings for the Mountaineers, and gave way to Tony Kralovec in the sixth inning. That move didn't work well when Darmogray singled to right field and Sunduquist drew his third walk of the game. Kelly, after a long at-bat, skyed a deep fly ball to left field that was dropped by the left fielder, and two runs scored.

So IM Coach Paul Julian brought Runsat, a 6-foot-5 lefty, back to the mound.

Runsat hit Creten with a pitch, then Nick Martin's pop fly single brought in a Braves run. Runsat got defensive help when Noah Peterson smoked a shot up the middle that was caught at shortstop for an unassited double play, with Martin helpless to get back to the bag at second.

An error on a Bagwell grounder brought in Gladstone's eighth run, but Runsat got Solis to ground out to end the sixth inning.

After Sunduist set down the Mountaineers in order in the top of the seventh, the Braves had their last chance in the bottom of the inning.

Casey Alworden led off with a walk, but Runsat got the next two outs. A wild pitch moved Alworden to second base, so Julian decided to intentionally walk Kelly, even though that move put the potential game-winning run on base. Moments later, with Creten at the plate, the Braves executed a double steal to put runners at second and third, in scoring position.

After Runsat got a 2-2 count on Creten, he got the called third strike to end the game.