Ogden Defeats Charger Boys at Principal Park, 8-3

It was the opportunity of a lifetime for the Ogden and ACGC baseball teams when they took the field at Principal Park in Des Moines yesterday afternoon. The home of the Iowa Cubs provided a top notch venue for the site of the WCAC matchup. But only one team could win, and it wasn't the Chargers. Ogden came out on top 8-3 in the first of two meetings the teams will have this summer.

Clayton Wardyn got the nod as the starting pitcher for the Chargers, and he struggled to find the plate in the one plus innings that he threw. In his last outing, Wardyn surrendered four bases on balls over five and a third innings, and gave up just two hits.

Yesterday he walked eight Bulldogs in the first and second innings, but surrendered no hits. Was it due to the "jitters" created by the venue? Or just a bad day for the Charger veteran? And yet, he struck out three consecutive Ogden batters to end the first inning.

At any rate, the Chargers were down 6-1 after two innings and were unable to overcome the deficit. Andrew Mahaffey replaced Wardyn in the second inning, and pitched through the fifth, giving up three runs on five hits while walking one and striking out four. Eli Kading and Alex Spack threw the final inning and managed to shut down the Bulldogs.

The Chargers scored single runs in the second, fourth and sixth innings to account for their three run total. Cayden Jensen scored the first ACGC run when he walked, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and came home on a ground out by Eli Kading.

The Charger run in the third inning was scored by Newell Rogers who walked with two outs. Jensen moved Rogers to third with a single to right field, and the elder Kading got another RBI when he singled to score Rogers.

The final Charger score came in the sixth inning when Miles Kading singled with one out. He got a little help from the Bulldogs when he advanced to second on a passed ball, stole third base, and came home on an Ogden error. That completed the scoring for the game, with the Bulldogs winning for the seventeenth consecutive time over the Chargers.

The Chargers came up with six hits (all singles), led by Jensen with two. Brock Littler, Wardyn, and the Kading brothers each accounted for one hit.

The loss leaves the Chargers with a season record of 0-5 (0-4 in the WCAC) heading into tonight's doubleheader at Earlham. Go Chargers!

Score by inning:

ACGC 010 101 0--3 6 2

Ogden 152 000 X--8 6 2

Charger hitting: (AB-R-H-RBI) Crawford (4-0-0-0) Littler (3-0-1-0) MKading (3-1-1-0) Rogers (2-0-0-0) Jensen (2-1-2-0) EKading (3-0-1-2) Rumelhart (3-0-0-0) Marsh (2-0-0-0) Wardyn (3-0-1-0)

Charger pitching: (IP-H-R-ER-SO-BB) Wardyn (1.00-0-5-5-3-8) Mahaffey (4.00-4-3-0-3-1) EKading (.667-0-0-0-0-3) Spack (.333-0-0-0-1-0)