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Mineral Point's baseball team did a lot of things well in their battle with a strong Shullsburg/Benton squad but an eighth inning home run ended it 4-3.
Shullsburg/Benton's Nathan Mowry lead off the eighth inning with a solo home run to provide Shullsburg/Benton with a 4-3, comeback win over the Pointers. Mowry also got the start on the mound, going 4 innings, giving up 3 hits, 2 walks, 2 runs with 1 earned. Jacob Berendes came on in relief for 3 innings, giving up a single, 3 walks and a run.
Nolan Strang took on the role of closer and shut the door in 8th.
Joey Dolphin got the start for the Pointers going six innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 walks and striking out 10. Justin Baehler pitched the final two frames.
The scoring started in the second, Grant Bossert reached on an error, Curtis Cox walked, both advanced on a ground out, and Jaron Walrack delivered a two run triple for a 2-0 lead.
Shullsburg-Benton cut the lead in half in the third inning. Brooks Tiedeman tripled with two outs, then advanced home on an error.
In the fifth, Nick Jansen singled, stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored later on an attempted catch with Tiedeman stealing second after a walk.
The Pointers took the lead back in the bottom of the fifth when Grady Gorgen singled, stole second and third before Brandon Dolphin walked and stole second. Joey Dolphin was intentionally walked, and Grant Bossert delivered a eight pitch walk as well to plate Gorgen.
Baehler came on in relief for the Pointers in the seventh.
Weigel reached on an error and advanced to second on another error. With two outs, Tiedeman was intentionally walked, then Nolan Strang laid a bunt down that would plate Weigel after a throwing error.
The Pointers' bats stayed quiet in the seventh and Mowry homered in the top of the eighth to seal the win. Baehler ended with 2 innings pitched, 4 strikeouts, 2 hits, 2 walks, 2 runs, 1 earned.
"Joey pitched extremely well for it being cold and early in the season," said coach Jordan Tibbits. "He put us in a great situation against a good Shullsburg/Benton team."
"We had our chances. We left eight runners in scoring position," Tibbits said. "A few mental errors defensively cost us some runs as well. That's stuff we will learn from over the next 24 games. We need more timely hits and need to do a better job of putting the ball in play when we have runners on. Our tough non-conference schedule will tune us up for the conference race."