Audubon Wins Wild Affair in Mo Valley, 15-14

Audubon's Cooper Nielsen on win over Missouri Valley (6-20-22)

Audubon Wins Wild Affair in Mo Valley, 15-14 –

(6-20-22) - The runs just kept on coming!

Audubon needed every run they scored in the top of the 7th as Missouri Valley mounted a near-improbable comeback, only to leave the tying run at 2nd in a 15-14 for the visitors.

The Wheelers knew this Big Red team had the ability to comeback.

“Last game, we were able to score a couple runs and get up by a couple… but we could never put them away completely and they were able to battle back then,” said Cooper Nielsen to KNOD Sports following the game. “So, we knew we needed to final get up on them and try and keep them away.”

Nielsen was 4 for 5 with 3 RBI for Audubon. Teammates Gavin Smith and Braden Wessel also drove in 3 runs apiece. Missouri Valley’s Cody Gilpin was 3 for 5 with a homer, 5 RBI, and 4 runs scored in the loss.

In what looked like would be the Wheelers rolling to an easy victory, 9 unanswered runs to take a 9-3 lead into the bottom of the 4th. The Big Reds would get 2 runs to cut their deficit to 4. Then in the 5th, after Audubon got a run back, Cody Gilpin hit a 3-run homer that made it a 10-8 game.

That would be the score going into the 7th inning when the Wheelers scored 5 to blow the game open 15-8 on four consecutive hits followed by big blows at the top of the order to cap off the scoring.

The Big Reds would get the first two runners on base in the 7th, but reliever Gavin Smith struck out the next two batters for the Wheelers and they were an out away from win. That’s when things got interesting. Error would load the bases, then a double drove in two runs, back-to-back walks brought home another, then a hit by pitch, and two-run single cut the deficit to just one.

But Gavin Larsen, who reentered the game at pitcher for the second time, would strikeout the final batter of the game to preserve the victory.

Audubon improves to 10-7 and 8-5 in the WIC while Missouri Valley falls to 8-9 overall, 7-4 in conference play.

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