Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
AUBURN - The Carrollton Hawks learned a thing or two about themselves on their way back down from reality.
They were defeated by the Auburn Trojans for the third consecutive year in a five-inning 13-0 loss in a non-conference game at Veterans Park in Auburn on Tuesday afternoon.
Carrollton moves to 12-2, but remain undefeated against Class 1A opponents.
“This was a team that had beaten us both years and tried to use that as motivation and got off to a rough start,” Carrollton coach Jeff Krumwiede said. “We got to go back to the drawing board with some of our guys. We said that hitting would catch up with pitching, but we didn’t feel like it was going to be this much of a tidal wave of walking and hitting people and making errors in key situations. You throw it all together and find a way to lose 13-0, and we did it today. Give Auburn credit because they’re a good team and put the bat on the ball.”
Auburn, a Class 2A school, banged out ten hits and scored a pair of four runs in the first two innings to take an early 8-0 lead. Braydon Smith, Destin Chance, Reece Conway, and Tyrun Thomason all collected two hits. Additionally, Thomason finished with four RBI. The Trojans are now averaging 11 runs per game.
“We’ve been swinging the bats extremely well all season,” Auburn coach Tom Meyers said. “Our defense has been suspect this year. We’ve squandered some leads because our defense killed us. So if we get that tightened up, we’re a pretty dog-gone good team. We did that tonight behind Justin Tanner who is our No. 1 [pitcher]. We feel confident when he’s on the mound that we’re going to win a game.”
Tanner threw five innings of shutout ball and struck out four batters, walked nobody, and allowed four hits.
Freshman second baseman, Gus Coonrod tallied half of Carrollton’s hits by going 2-for-2 at the plate. Nathan Walker and Clay Schnettgoecke grabbed the other two.
The Hawks threatened Auburn in the first inning putting two men aboard but were unable to drive them in.
In the bottom of the first inning, Chance hit a leadoff triple and would score on a groundout by Zach Stephens. Two batters later with two outs, sophomore Connor Tripp hit a slow roller to Schnettgoecke at shortstop, but Tripp managed to be the throw out at first, which brought Conway home. Thomason then lined a two-run single making it 4-0.
The Hawks starting pitcher, Ethan Brannan wouldn’t make it through the first round of the Trojans lineup after being pulled after facing their ninth-place hitter. In came freshman Grant Pohlman who threw two innings before Coonrod took over for one more frame.
Defensively, Carrollton allowed four errors to occur. After a two-run double by Conway, an infield error gave Auburn another run at 7-0 and Smith finished off the second inning with an RBI single.
“We’re giving teams too many outs, and there’s no cause for alarm here,” Krumwiede said. “We’re 12-2, but there are things that are obvious that weren’t exposed versus some of the opponents we played earlier that are being exposed now.”
Carrollton will have two days to rest and prepare for the Beardstown Tournament, which features a loaded lineup. On Friday, the Hawks will play two games starting with the Pleasant Plains Cardinals (8-2), another Sangamo school, and the Quincy Notre Dame Raiders (7-2). Carrollton will play another game on Saturday depending on results.
“It’s a tough loss and a tough row to hoe, but we got to bounce back,” Krumwiede said. “We have two practices on the field in decent weather, which hasn’t happened combined yet, in the next two days. When we take off for Beardstown Friday, we can get back to feeling good about ourselves and being able to compete in that monster tournament. It’s going to be time for some guys to step up and show that they can compete at a higher level.”
