The United Red Storm baseball season began at home Monday night as the Orion Chargers paid a visit. The Red Storm fell 6-5 in this one. United fell behind early in this one as Orion scored 2 in the first, 3 in the second and 1 in the fourth to open a 6-0 lead. Nolan Leffler started for United and struggled with his control walking three while he held Orion to just 1 hit in 3 innings but his defense let him down as United had 6 errors on the evening. Leffler did strike out 4 while only giving up 1 earned run. Aiden Parkins worked the final four innings giving up 1 unearned run while striking out 6. The bats were silent in the first 3 innings but United began to chip away in the fourth as a Colin Jenks walk was followed by a Matt Holmes single, a walk to AJ Jenks and a hit by pitch and 2 more walks made it 6-4. United got one more in the fifth as Colin Jenks singled stole second and scored on Matt Holmes second hit of the game. That was as close as the Red Storm would get as Orion kept them off the board in the final 2 innings. Leading the offense was Matt Holmes with 2 hits while Colin Jenks had their other hit. Was definitely a typical opening night game but was thrilling down the stretch. Nolan Leffler deserved better but took the loss. The Red Storm return to the diamond on Tuesday as they will travel to West Prairie. One more note from this one during the national anthem I noticed the Red Storm ladies softball team who were practicing on the adjacent diamond stopped practice and stood at attention. Great job ladies and thank you for your respect.
***Report Courtesy of Sports Talk from the Hart on Facebook***
