Friday's Munster-Highland Northwest Crossroads matchup had all the makings of a classic showdown -- of the old west variety. High winds had outfield dirt flying so often that the only thing missing were tumbleweeds.
Indeed, this town was not big enough for the both of them, but when the dust settled -- actually, the dust never really settled -- Munster may not have been the quickest to the draw, but in the end was more accurate with an 11-5 win over the Trojans, taking over first place in the conference with the win.
"With the weather conditions the way they were, we knew this would be a wild game," said Munster coach Bob Shinkan.
Translation: hit the ball in the air and let the other team take its chances.
Chaos officially began when Rich Fowler nailed a home run to left center in the first inning, followed by RBIs by Jordan Minch and Matt Spretnjak that gave the Trojans a 4-1 lead in the third, a lead they would slowly relinquish.
"We just made too many mistakes," said Highland coach Dan Miller. "We didn't handle ground balls, didn't throw to the right base, and we made some mental errors that gave them an extra base."
All of the above cost the Trojans (12-6 5-1 in NCC) in the fourth when Munster scored twice, aided by one of four errors Highland made in the game. A Matt Brozovic single tied it at 4-4 and then an RBI ground out by Josh Lukoshus pushed across the winning run.
"In left field I couldn't even hear (because of the wind). I could hardly see with all the dust blowing out," said Lukoshus who's other RBI, a wind-assisted double was set up by another Highland miscue. "This is a big win because we have gone through the first half of our conference undefeated. We have to go back through them again and keep on winning."
The Trojans had one more shot to make a game of it in the sixth inning but were the victims of a different type of web gem. Highland had the bases loaded with only one out but winning pitcher Simon Webb forced a couple of ground outs to snuff out the rally.
"It's a big win for us and the kids, but we have to keep it in perspective," Shinkan said. "There is still a lot of baseball to be played."
Eight Munster (10-6 6-0) players had at least one hit in the game including Adam Larimer who had three of them.
Nate Eagen capped the game, set, match five run sixth with a homer, followed by the fastest home run trot in recorded baseball history (he almost beat his teammates coming out to congratulate him to home plate).
Spretnjak had two hits while Mike Bremer got on base three times for the Trojans who had their chances but "we just didn't play very smart today," Miller said. "Credit Munster, though. They got hits when they had to."
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