Rock River League baseball: Milton Crescents suffer first loss

The Crescents entered Sunday’s home game against Neosho with a 4-0 record in Rock River League play—their first season back after taking the 2020 and 2021 seasons off.

But the Rockets ended that unbeaten start with a 13-7 victory over the Crescents, banging out 19 base hits in the process.

“But it wasn’t that close,” Crescents general manager Doug Welch said.

Neosho opened an 8-1 lead after three innings, and then made it 13-3 after six innings before Milton scored five times in the final three innings.

The loss dropped Milton to 4-1 in the Rock River League Southern Division, tied for first place with Neosho and Clyman.

“It was disappointing because we had an opportunity to distance ourselves from the rest of the league with a win,” Welch said. “Now we’re in a three-team scrum for first place.

“We didn’t pitch well, we certainly didn’t field well and we struggled offensively against the type of pitching we’ve been hitting hard the first four games. But our schedule loosens up a bit in the coming weeks and we’ll shake this off.”

Tom Klawitter took the pitching loss, working until the third inning. Tressin Kussmaul led the Milton offense with a home run and a single, Josh Shere went 2-for-4 and Sam McCann doubled.

Milton does not have a home game through the month of June and plays on the road at Ashippun twice, at Helenville and at Johnson Creek. The Crescents’ next game is Saturday at Ashippun.

NEOSHO 13, MILTON 7

Neosho 305 011 120 — 13 19 1

Milton 001 010 122 — 7 9 5

Leading hitters—N: Zach Lauersdorf 3x6, Shane Murphy 3x6, Benjamin Lambert 3x5 (2B), Nick Archambeau 3x5, Lucas Schramm 3x5; M: Trevor Kussmaul 2x5 (HR), Sam McCann (2B), Joshua Udelhoven 2x4.

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-so-bb)—N: Benjamin Lambert (3-1-1-1-1-1), Shane Murphy (W, 4-3-2-2-4-7), Zach Lauersdorf (2-5-4-4-5-0); M: Tom Klawitter (L, 2.2-11-8-6-2-0), Sean McCann (4.1-7-3-2-7-2), Carter Schneider (2-1-2-2-6-4).