Mustangs score homestand sweep with two wins in a day over A's

By MATT PIKE

The St. Joseph Mustangs swept a three game homestand, filled each night with postgame fireworks, beating the Clarinda A’s 10-9 on Saturday night at Phil Welch Stadium in a battle of the two teams at the top of the MINK League.

Before the matchup, the two teams concluded a suspended matchup from June 26th, a game that was stopped tied 3-3 in the top of the ninth inning due to inclement weather rolling into St. Joseph.  After Jase Johnson escaped the top of the inning unharmed, only giving up a single, the Mustangs led off the bottom of the ninth with a double by Jack Mosh, who eventually was the winning run as Trevor McCollum hit a walkoff single into right field for a 4-3 win. 

Starting action in their normally scheduled game, following an exhibition matchup between the St. Joseph Police Department and Fire Department, the Mustangs and A’s took the field, with St. Joseph taking a lead in the first inning, scoring four runs. 

Lafayette alum Brayden Luikart drove in the first runs of the game with a double with no outs, scoring Jack Mosh and Central alum Logan Miller.  Luikart scored later in the inning thanks to a new face to the team, in his first game with the Mustangs Luke Bies singled home Luikart.  Bies scored the final run of the inning on a single by Carter Belton for a 4-0 Mustangs lead. 

St. Joseph extended their lead in the second inning as Miller scored on a groundout by Luikart.  Two more runs were added in the inning when Justin George doubled into center field, driving in Dom Felix for an unearned run as well as Jack Mosh, giving the Mustangs a 7-0 lead, a lead they held until Clarinda began to rally in the fourth inning. 

A big inning for the A’s cut the lead to two as Colin Linteo hit a two run triple, bringing home Clayton Pourciau and Brady Dobson.  Then, with the bases loaded after Cooper Knight was hit by a pitch and Micah Nicholson walked, Drake Cobb hit a bases clearing double driving in all three runners to cut the Mustangs lead to 7-5. 

In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Mustangs added another run of insurance as Bies scored on a wild pitch.  But in the sixth inning the A’s got that run back to cut the lead back to two runs on a home run, a solo shot by Linteo, and in the same inning cut the lead to one run with another solo home run from Cobb.  By the end of the sixth, the lead remained two runs though, as Savannah alum Truman Bodenhausen scored on a wild pitch in the bottom half of the sixth, giving the Mustangs a 9-7 lead.

Linteo continued having a field day for the A’s in the eighth inning, cutting the lead to one again, hitting his second home run of the game.  In the bottom half of the inning, Bies also continued his stellar debut for the Mustangs, driving in a big insurance run with the bases loaded, singling to drive in Miller for a 10-9 lead, the bases were stranded loaded however as Darius Freeman grounded out to third base. 

The Mustangs brought on Benton alum Chris Coy to close out the game in the ninth inning.  Coy forced Cooper Eberly to flyout to right field, but then ran into some trouble, surrendering a single to Tayvon Homolar, who later advanced to second on a wild pitch, before walking Clayton Pourciau, and then again allowing both runners to advance on another wild pitch.  With runners at second and third, Coy got Jake Espeland to ground out, scoring Homolar, and bringing Linteo to the plate.  But this time, Linteo was called out on strikes, and Coy earned his first career save.

Michael Infranca earned the win for the Mustangs, pitching 1 1/3 innings of relief and giving up one run on two hits, striking out two and walking one after taking over for starter Aron Harrington who pitched 3 2/3 innings giving up four runs on one hit while striking out three and walking three.  At the plate, Luikart was 1-for-5 with a double, a stolen base, three RBI’s, and a walk.  Mosh was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two runs scored, while Bodenhausen was also 2-for-4 with a walk, a stolen base, and a run scored. 

The Mustangs are now 24-5 on the season and are 19-4 in the MINK League.  They hit the road next for a three game roadtrip, starting tomorrow in Clarinda taking on the A’s once again, with first pitch from Iowa at 7pm. 

You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.