Spencer baseball team takes loss against Neillsville

Defeats Pirates, Greyhounds

In its three most recent games, the Spencer High School baseball team suffered a loss but rebounded for two wins.

Spencer played Neillsville May 9 at home and lost, partially due to mistakes made and not being able to hang on to momentum from the beginning of the game.

Initially, Spencer looked like it might come out on top, scoring two runs in the first and second innings while Neillsville failed to put any on the board. However, Neillsville kicked things up a notch in the top of the third, scoring four runs plus another four in the top of the fourth to go ahead. Spencer countered that with just one run in the third. The fifth and sixth innings were scoreless and both teams scored one final run in the seventh, leading to the 9-6 Neillsville victory.

Spencer committed five errors and gave up five unearned runs in the loss. In contrast, Neillsville only committed two errors and didn’t give up any unearned runs. The game’s result caused Spencer to fall to 8-5 overall and 5-2 in the conference.

Reed Knecht took the loss, pitching 3.1 innings. He allowed five hits, eight runs and three earned runs, and struck out one.

The Rockets’ top hitters were Knecht, Carter Luepke and Andrew Sieracki. Knecht went 2-4 with three RBIs. Luepke was 2-3 at the plate, with two RBIs and hit by a pitch once. Sieracki went 1-3. He scored two runs and got a walk.

Peyton Brookhart and Luke Roehrborn each hit a double for the Rockets. Five players stole at least one base, including Madden Prybylski, Knecht, Roehrborn, Tyler Peterson and Sieracki, who stole two.

Neillsville had seven total runners left on base while Spencer had 10.

Gilman game The Spencer team traveled to Gilman Thursday for its eighth conference game of the year. Spencer defeated Gilman to improve to 6-2 in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference and 9-5 overall.

The Rockets got out to an eager start, scoring four runs in the top of the first. Gilman only scored once in that inning. The bats stayed quiet in the second, third and top of the fourth, but in the bottom of the fourth Gilman mustered one more run. Spencer scored one more in the fifth while Gilman had two, leaving the score 5-4 in Spencer’s favor. In the sixth though, the Rockets really stepped on the gas and churned out eight runs. That put the Rockets well ahead to cruise to a confident 15-6 victory.

Peterson got the win, pitching five innings; giving up four runs, three earned, on four hits; and striking out four.

Spencer’s top hitters were as follows. Sieracki went 4-5, with one double, one RBI and four runs. Knecht went 3-4, hitting two doubles, with two RBIs and one run. Luepke went 2-3. He also hit a double, and had two RBIs and two runs. Kaiden Miller was 2-for-5, with two RBIs and two runs.

Knecht, Brookhart and Roehrborn each hit a sacrifice fly for their team.

Peterson and Sieracki stole three bases, and Knecht, Prybylski and Miller each stole a base.

Both teams committed three errors.

Loyal game Next on the Rockets’ schedule was a a home conference game versus Loyal Monday afternoon. They beat Loyal in six innings by a score of 11-1. Spencer’s conference record improved to 7-3, and 10-6 overall.

Knecht threw a complete game, going six innings, allowing just one hit, striking out five and walking three.

Top hitters for the Rockets were: Roehrborn, who went 1-3, had three RBIs, one run and one walk; Knecht, who went 2-4, had two RBIs and two runs; and Miller, who went 3-4 with four RBIs.