The Roland-Story Norsemen baseball and softball teams returned to action on Monday night, as they hosted the PCM Mustangs in Heart of Iowa Conference action in Story City and Roland. Roland-Story baseball entered with a record of 13-12, while Roland-Story softball entered with a mark of 11-14.
Chris Hill’s squad, fresh off a tournament win at Swing for the Fences Invite in Waterloo, took an early 1-0 lead in the first. PCM would knot it up in the 2nd at 1-1, and from there it would be a pitchers duel, with the score still even at 1-1 after the 7th inning. A scoreless 8th gave way to the 9th, and finally, Roland-Story would plate the winning run to take home a 2-1 win. Brett Schmitz and Sam Knoll would tally RBI for the Norsemen, while Luke Patton picked up the win in relief, pitching 3.2 innings, allowing no runs off no hits, and striking out 7. Starter Dillon Lettow fanned 11 batters through 5.1 innings of work.
Roland-Story softball would be locked with a tight game early with the Mustangs, with the game tied at 1-1 after the 5th. However, PCM blew the doors open in a 9-run 6th inning, highlighted by an Addison Steenhoek 3-run homer, to give the Mustangs a 10-1 lead. The Norsemen would score 2 in the 7th, but would not get close enough in a 10-3 loss. Alynn Solberg would go 2-for-2 with 2 RBI on the night.
Roland-Story baseball returns to action Tuesday night, as they host South Central Calhoun in Story City. Roland-Story softball returns to action on Tuesday night as they travel to Clarksville.