Mt. Vernon baseball takes third in Clever’s ROTB Tournament

The Mt’neers will look to rebound on the baseball diamond after a tough 6-19 season in 2021. Eleven lettermen return in what should be a promising year for the diamond Mt’neers. The team is already off to a great start taking their first two games of the season against Clever and Spokane.
While there is plenty of returning talent, the Mt’neers are still young, as freshmen were making impacts all over the field, most notably on the mound. The solid season entry began as Mt. Vernon went 3-1 in Clever’s Right Off The Bat Tournament last week. They opened with a tight 2-1 win thanks to a pair of runs driven in by Brady Brown and Sean Raucher and a masterful pitching performance by senior Tristan Jones.
The flood gates opened for the Mt’neers in game two of Monday’s double header as Mt. Vernon exploded for 16 runs on 14 hits against Spokane, including Braden Dodson’s 3-4 performance with 5 RBI’s. The win showed some mental toughness as well, as a rain delay in the fourth inning forced the teams off the field for nearly an hour as penny sized hail beat down on the teams.
The 16-1 win over Spokane meant that the Mt’neers won their pool and advanced to play the No. 2 team from the other pool and that happened to be rival Aurora. It has been a difficult athletics season for the Mt’neers against the Houn’ Dawgs as Aurora has gotten the better part of Mt. Vernon on the gridiron and the hardwood already this season. With Aurora’s recent success on the diamond, and what should be another good year for the Dawgs, Mt. Vernon gave little resistance as Aurora won 15-2. This set up a rematch with Clever on Saturday that saw Mt. Vernon defeating the Jays again, this time 4-1.
The Mt’neers sit at 3-1 after one week of the season. They will be busy this week as they already took on East Newton on Monday. They then travel to Lamar on Thursday and Stockton on Friday.