Hawks out-slug Dieterich in 2nd annual Battle of the Birds

DIETERICH - Saturday afternoon was a win for everybody involved with Carrollton and Dieterich, primarily if your last name was Krumwiede.

Carrollton Hawks coach, Jeff Krumwiede and his son, Josh, the head coach of the Movin’ Maroons, matched up for the Second Annual Battle of the Birds at Dieterich Jr./Sr. High School. Although the matchup does pity father versus son, but also an opportunity to take advantage of both sets of communities coming together.

“I enjoy what’s going to happen with the picnic and the interaction between the parents and the coaches from each school,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “That’s by far the best part about this. We got the game over with. That’s for the kids and the parents to enjoy. Everybody wins no matter what the score was today. Our family wins because we’re so blessed to have this. We’re very blessed people and to have a chance to enjoy something that we all love and have in common on a ball diamond on a sunny day; it doesn’t get any better.”

A year ago, the Hawks bested the Maroons in a tight 5-4 game, but today proved to be a polar opposite.

Carrollton’s lineup exploded for nine runs in the first two innings and held on for a 14-8 victory.

“[We] hit a lot of line drives today, especially early. I’m really pleased with our hitting,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “We preach about putting the ball in play and even on some of the balls we didn’t hit hard good things happened for us. They struggled with their defense. That helped, but we also had a lot of sharp singles and doubles. I’m excited about our offense.”

Batting sixth was Ethan Brannan, who enjoyed 3-for-4 day at the plate with four RBI and got things rolling for the Hawks with a three-run double in the first inning. It was primarily a big day for Brannan because he started the season off slowly, but with encouragement from his teammates and making some batting adjustments, he’s a different hitter now.

“It feels really good to finally be able to contribute to our offense that’s been going so well this season,” Brannan said. “I closed my stance up a little bit and felt more relaxed and so far so good. It means a lot that so many people are behind me when I’m struggling or not and tell me to keep hanging in there. That’s what I did in practice and came out here and started hitting the ball.”

“Ethan’s been hot lately, that’s why he’s up to the six-hole,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “He’s been all over six, seven, eight, nine and we moved him up because he’s been swinging the bat well.”

After Dieterich added a run in the bottom half of the first inning, Carrollton erupted on Cole Niebrugge for six runs in the second all with two outs.

Gus Coonrod reached base on an error in leftfield, Nathan Walker doubled him over to third base, and Hunter Flowers plated the pair in with a double making it 5-1. Flowers scored when the following batter, Gabe Jones smacked an RBI double. After Brannan drew a walk, Garrett Settles knocked another RBI double, and a past ball saw Brannan score from third base making it 9-1.

The Maroons (5-3), who were smoked by Effingham 18-0 on Thursday, was once again stacked in an improbable situation, but they would not go quietly.

“I’m really proud of my guys because we’ve had a couple of games where we’ve gotten down and quit,” Josh Krumwiede said. “We talked a lot about not quitting and battling back and chipping away. When you get down that big that early you got to keep playing because you have opportunities to chip away and you may not get it all back in one inning. I was proud of the guys for not giving up even though it wasn’t the outcome we wanted.”

Jones struck out the first two hitters in the inning for the Hawks, but gave up a single to Dalton Will and walked Cory Gephart bringing Matthew Hunzinger to the plate. Hunzinger proceeded to power a high fly ball over the fence in centerfield for a three-run home run cutting the deficit to 9-4.

A 6-foot-3 senior, Jones frequently mows down hitters, but it wasn’t his day.

“Not my best stuff on the mound today. I was missing my spots a lot,” Jones said. “But it’s good to know that even when I don’t have my best stuff, our lineup can come and generate a bunch of runs and still keep us ahead of the whole game.”

He and Niebrugge allowed no runs in the third, but both teams were hungry again in the fourth inning.

Walker and Flowers hit back-to-back singles and Walker scored on an error while Brannan notched his fourth RBI with a single bringing home Flowers. Walker and Flowers both went 3-for-5. Krumwiede was forced to remove Niebrugge.

“He’s been out No. 1 since we play in the fall and he was great. In the spring he’s kind of had some bumps in the road, but 12 of the 14 were unearned. When you look at that, and you think about, yes Carrollton hit the ball, and you have to give them credit because they have a great lineup, but at the same time out defense has got to make plays behind him and create some longevity as far as him being able to stay in the game. It was a tough go from the beginning.”

After Derek Kuhl replaced Niebrugge, junior shortstop Clay Schnettgoecke joined the hitting parade with a two-run double to give the Hawks their eight-run cushion back.

“Schnettegocke was due today,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “He had a lot of tough outs lately, and I was happy he got a break here and there. Niebrugge is a good pitcher and for us to swing the bats like that against him early was big.”

The Maroons would keep chipping away.

Will earned a base hit and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Later, Kuhl got on base via an error and Hunzinger scored to make it 12-6.

Jones finished with six strikeouts, but walked the same amount of batters and gave up five runs on five hits in three and one-third innings pitched. He still earned the win and improved to 3-0 on the season.

“No doubt he struggled,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “We’ll have to go back to the board and see what we can do. Mechanically, there’s an issue he’s had trouble with the last couple of years that we got to fix. He’s got now until Friday to straighten it out, and I’m sure he will.”

Dieterich got as close to 12-8 after adding two more in the fifth inning. Will finished 3-for-5 at the plate, and Evan Bohnhoff was 2-for-4. Gephart was 1-for-2 with three walks. However, Brannan and Walker combined to shut the door in the final two innings in relief.

“We had pretty much our whole pitching staff ready today, and I was going to use them if we had to,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “We took Ethan out at 45 [pitches] so that he can come back Monday or Tuesday if we need him. Same thing we wanted to do with Walker. Our schedule gets a lot tougher, and hopefully, we keep our arms fresh, and that’s why we split it between three guys today.”

Schnettgoecke gave Carrollton some insurance with another two-run double in the sixth inning. He finished 2-for-4 at the plate.

“Our offense this year has done really well,” Ethan Brannan said. “Dieterich’s a good ball club, and their pitching is good. To see us and some of the younger guys step up, make plays, and hit the ball, and get big-time hits is what we really need, and I’m glad to see that.”

More like this: