After giving up a run in the top of the first inning, International Falls’ baseball team did the rest of the scoring Thursday when the Broncos opened the season at home with a 9-1 victory over Cherry.
“We hit the ball well,” said Falls head coach Vic Heinlen. “We played a Cherry team that I thought played pretty good defense.”
The Broncos’ leadoff batter, Jackson Vollom, accounted for three of the team’s 6 hits. Vollom had a pair of singles and double with 3 RBI.
Josh Potter added a double for the Falls. Caleb Dahlin and John Bartkowski both singled.
Heinlen said he thought the Broncos’ offense “did just fine” to open the season.
“We left some runners stranded where I thought we should have pushed them around,” he said. “I thought we pulled the ball a little bit where we should have gone to the opposite field.”
On the defensive side of the ball, both teams each committed 2 errors.
Gunnar Anderson pitched five innings to record the victory for the Falls. He allowed an earned run on 7 hits with a walk while striking out a batter.
Ben Humbert pitched the final two innings for the Falls as he allowed 2 hits and a walk while tallying 4 strikeouts.
“I planned to start Gunnar for 4-5 innings, whatever he could go, and then I was going to go to a little bit of an off-speed pitcher,” Heinlen said. “But they seemed to be staying away from the fastball pretty hard, so I thought, well, I might as well let them see Ben for a couple of innings and see what happens...very pleased with the outcome.”
Matt Koski led Cherry with 3 hits, a pair of singles and a double. Guy Bradach and Spencer Salo each added 2 hits with Salo recording a triple and Bradach registering a double.
Jordan Parenteau pitched 3 1/3 innings to record the loss for Cherry, allowing all 9 earned runs on 5 hits with 9 walks while striking out two. Mikey Mesia gave up a hit with 2 walks pitching the final 2 2/3 innings in relief.
I. Falls 9, Cherry 1
Cherry 1-0-0 0-0-0 0 — 1 9 2 I. Falls 1-2-4 2-0-0 X — 9 6 2
WP—Gunnar Anderson;
LP—Jordan Parenteau
