Raschke wallops grand slam in Warrior opener
Clint Raschke’s first-inning grand slam would have been enough, but the Mercy baseball team piled up 12 more runs over the next three innings to whip Liberty Christian, 16-3, in the Patriots’ tournament opener Thursday morning.
Wanting payback for a pair of severe basketball defeats, Mercy unloaded its talented offense on Patriots starter Phillip Templeton, putting up 11 runs against him in two innings.
In the top of the first, Pat Farmer singled with two outs to open a rally. Ethan Bell reached on an error and Michael Burns walked to load the bases for Raschke, who popped a ball over the center-field fence for his four-run homer.
Batting out of the nine hole, freshman Michael Uhalde lined a single into left-center to open the second-inning scorefest. Eric Lindeman and
Scott Farmer worked back-to-back walks and Pat Farmer doubled to plate two runs. Bell was hit by a pitch to jam the bases again, and Burns pushed a run across by beating out an infield single. Raschke drove in another run on a fielder’s choice and C.J. Gill followed with a RBI single.
Ben Williams, Mercy’s starter on the mound, grounded a ball to the right side that was misplayed by the Liberty second baseman for an error, bringing Raschke and Gill around to score.
The Warriors picked up where they left off in the third inning with three more runs against relievers Steven Behnke and Curtis Behnke, who had to join forces just to record three outs.
Lindeman walked and the Farmer brothers blooped almost identical singles into right field. Pat’s hit scored Lindeman, Bell walked and Scott scored on a sacrifice fly tomahawked into right field by Burns. Pat scored from third after a pickoff throw to first got away, giving Mercy a 13-2 advantage after three innings.
In the fourth, Lindeman smoked a two-bagger to left-center and went to third on a hit from Scott. Pat drove in Lindeman on a groundout and Raschke scored Scott with a RBI single.
Scott Farmer also doubled off the base of the wall in left-center during the fifth inning, going 3-for-4 on the day with three runs scored. Pat Farmer was 3-for-5, scoring three times and also knocking in three runs. Raschke finished 2-for-3 with six RBI, scoring twice, and Lindeman crossed the plate three times out of the leadoff spot for Mercy.
Joseph Torres came up with a pinch-hit single to right field in the fifth inning and teammate Nathan Sandoval scored a run in the second inning, as the courtesy runner for the catcher, Bell.
Ben Williams quieted the Patriots offense with four strong innings on the mound, allowing only two earned runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out four for the victory. Raschke worked a scoreless fifth, walking one and striking out two batters.
Mercy 5
University Prep 4
The Warriors continued Liberty’s roundrobin event on Friday with a 5-4 nonleague victory over fellow Mid-Valley North participant University Prep.
Lindeman pitched a complete game for Mercy, giving up two earned runs on five hits, walking two and fanning nine for the win.
The Panthers led 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth, when Mercy rallied to take a 2-1 lead. The Warriors had to come from behind again in their final turn, rallying from a 4-2 deficit with three runs to win the game in the sixth with the one-hour, 50-minute time limit looming.
Scott Farmer drove in two runs, Lindeman hit a double and Burns went 2-for-3 with a RBI and a run scored. Gill and Uhalde scored runs for the Mercy offense, Williams also scored, reaching base on a RBI single, and also Bell singled and scored a run.
Burney 10, Mercy 0
On Saturday, the Warriors were beaten by Burney, 10-0, despite the Raiders only scoring two earned runs against Mercy’s pitching.
Pat Farmer worked the first four innings and six of the eight runs scored in that time were unearned. Williams pitched the fifth inning, giving up two unearned runs.
Williams was 2-for-2 to lead Mercy’s offense, and Scott Farmer, Lindeman and Raschke also singled.
The Warriors (2-1) opened league play on Tuesday in Palo Cedro, against Bishop Quinn.
