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Mineral Point baseball coach Dan Burreson has been challenging the Pointers to keep getting better as the start of the "second season" nears.
"We need to continue to improve this week as we prepare ourselves for the tournament," Burreson said.
Last week the Pointers took a step in that direction with a convincing 11-1 win over Riverdale. The game went all seven innings as the 10 run margin came into effect in the top of the seventh when the visiting Pointers scored their 11th run.
Four of their runs came early and set the tone for the rest of the game. They pushed across four runs in the top of the first and never looked back.
Brady Tibbits got it going with a lead off single. Tucker Pittz followed with a single and winning pitcher Nick Smith slapped a double. A sac fly by Grant Myers plated a run and before the inning ended Garrett Bennett, Dakota Poad and Mark Kendall all reached with hits.
Tibbits was hit by a pitch to lead off the second. Hits by Myers and Bennett helped him score.
Riverdale scored its lone run in the fourth and the scored stayed at 5-1 until the sixth when the Pointers sent in four more.
Myers, Bennett, Poad and Kendall all had hits before the Chieftains recorded an out. Ian Ewers had the fifth hit of the inning.
The final score came in the top of the seventh when Myers tripled and scored on a sac fly by Bennett.
Bennett was 4x4, Myers 3x4, Poad 2x5, Kendall 2x3 and Ewers 2x2 to lead the Pointer attack. Tibbits, Pittz and Smith each had one hit.
Smith worked six innings and recorded the win. He fanned eight, walked five and gave up three hits along with the run.
Pittz worked a perfect seventh.
"Offensively, Brady got us going in the first two innings reaching twice and scoring twice," Burreson said. "Garrett Bennett had his best day at the plate this year going 4 x 4 and adding a sacrifice fly with three rbi's. Grant Myers continues to swing the bat well going 3x4. Dakota Poad and Mark Kendall continue to swing hot bats as both had two hits today and Dakota had 2 rbi's. Ian Ewers stepped in today and had two base hits."
"We got off to a good start and played pretty well for seven innings," Burreson added. "We committed one error in the game and Nick pitched pretty well again."