Troopers host wildcats, visit Aggies
BY GARY ERICKSON
The Troopers played host to the Lewis and Clark Wildcats on the April 20 in weather more suited for goose hunting than baseball but the teams and fans braved freezing temperatures, snow flurries, breezy conditions and no restrooms to watch a doubleheader split. In the first game, the Wildcats took advantage of their early opportunities scoring three runs, putting the Troopers in an early hole. Garrison pushed a run across in their half of the first but the visitors wiped that out with a run of their own in the second inning to maintain the three-run lead.
The Troopers scratched a run across in the second but the Wildcats answered with a crooked number, scoring three in the top of the third. Another single run in the bottom of the inning sliced into the lead but after three innings the Troopers found themselves down 7-3 with only six outs left. The visitors were held scoreless for the first time in the fourth inning so the Troopers came up to take their hacks hoping to at least cut into that lead. To take a lead, they would need to score more runs than they had in a game thus far this season.
The inning started slowly, with just a couple baserunners but it quickly snowballed into a big inning as the Troopers batted around plus some, sending at least 13 hitters to the plate. What started as a four run deficit turned into a six run Troopers lead. The defense held the Wildcats scoreless again, closing out the 13-7 Trooper win.
In the second game, while almost everyone was by now nearly frozen, the Wildcat offense got hot, scoring a dozen runs in the first inning. The Troopers scored three in the second but that was all the scoring for the day. The game was mercifully called after three innings, the Troopers falling by a 12-3 score.
