Cottage Grove’s defense, meanwhile, was lukewarm at best, making five mistakes, but was saved by the Crawdads’ fighting for one goal.
Columbus had chances to score in a couple of innings but could only get one run to cross in the sixth on a Watrud RBI single to claw within 24-1.
“I don’t think anyone will remember the run we did today,” said Sauer. “It was nice to see a couple of guys hit the ball. We’re a decent hitting team and it’s good that people have some success and take that into the next game. If you go 0-for-3 on a day like this, it’s even harder. It’s nice to see how they get some hits. “
The Crawdads also threatened to score in the first inning when they loaded the bases with two outs. Kendall Minick and Joey Kmiec both hit two outs before Gary Pashley sank them. But the threat was thwarted when Watrud struck.
The crawdads left seven runners stranded on the base. They let up two in the seventh inning after both Jarod Ontiveros and Brandon Walk scored mistakes from third baseman Paul Patten, but Kmiec ended the game with a popup for second baseman Tristen Herber.
This is the Crawdads’ second loss in two days as they are now looking to win their first game next Sunday when they travel to Sun Prairie.
“Hopefully we have our first-class lineup back and we will present our mainline out there,” said Sauer. “I expect we’ll be very competitive in this game.”
