Week 1

Musketeer’s baseball opened the season Tuesday at Valmeyer. Cole Stiebel took the mound, throwing five scoreless innings with nine strikeouts and one hit. Red Bud got on the board in the second inning when Tyler Koester and Jeff Kern scored. Stiebel added a two-run home run in the sixth inning to extend the Musketeer’s lead to 9-0. The weather turned cold and windy as Valmeyer was able to score five runs in the last two innings of the game. Red Bud left Valmeyer with a 9-5 win as the team still had two home games left in the week.

On Thursday the team faced Marrisa at home. The momentum of Tuesday’s game did not carry over to the field against the Meteors. Caleb Langrehr opened the game throwing four and one-third innings with one run scored and five strikeouts. The Red Bud bats were quiet all day as the team had only three hits as a team. Marissa started scoring heavily in the fifth inning adding four runs to take the 5-0 lead. The Meteors would go on to the 10-0 victory over the Musketeers.

Looking to bounce back after the loss, Red Bud took the field at home against Elverado on Friday. The Musketeer’s Tyler Koester went five innings with one run scored and four strikeouts. Red Bud’s Austin Milliere double in the third inning scored Caleb Langrehr to tie the game at 1-1. In the fourth inning, Jeff Kern scored to take a lead that Red Bud would not give back. The team would another eight runs with a huge seven-run sixth inning. The Musketeer’s won the game 10-3 to finish the opening week with two wins and one loss.

Red Bud has four games this week and started the week off at home against the DuQuoin Indians. The Musketeer’s got off to a fast start by scoring four runs in the first inning and looked solid through five innings. In the top of the sixth inning, the Indians got on a roll by scoring eleven runs to take a 12-5 lead. Red Bud added two runs the rest of the game and suffered a 12-7 home loss.

The Musketeer’s sit at 2-2 with three remaining games this week.

Week 2

The Musketeers traveled to Lebanon on Tuesday to face the Greyhounds with Caleb Langrehr on the mound. Langrehr gave the team five innings while giving up two hits and two runs while striking out three batters. Red Bud started the game hot at the plate, scoring six runs in the first inning. The team added six more runs to the board by the top of the fourth inning to carry a commanding 12-0 lead. The Greyhounds would add their two only runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth. Austin Melliere made his first mound appearance of the year in the fifth inning to end the game. Melliere struck out three batters to give the Musketeers the 13-2 win.

On Thursday, Alex Kueker made his first start of the year against Steeleville at home. In the first inning, Kueker worked himself out of a bases-loaded jam while surrendering one run. The Musketeer’s bats were slow to start the game as the Warriors tacked on two more runs in the second inning to take the 3-0 lead. Kueker came off the mound after three innings after giving up three hits and only one earned run. Cole Steibel came to the mound as Red Bud made a late push in the sixth inning to bring the score to 3-2 in favor of the Warriors. Steeleville responded in the top of the seventh by scoring five runs that Red Bud could not match. The Musketeers lost 8-2.

Following the loss, the team went to Sparta with Tyler Koester pitching. Koester threw five solid innings giving up four hits, these hits found the gaps and the Bulldogs capitalized throughout the early innings on Red Bud errors. Sparta got off to a 5-1 lead through four innings before the Musketeer’s late innings push began. Up to that point in the season the Musketeers had outscored opponents 29 to 12 in the first five innings while being outscored themselves 35 to 18 in the sixth and seventh innings. In Sparta however, the script flipped as Red Bud hung eight runs in the final three innings. Cole Steibel added a two-run blast as part of a six-RBI day. Parker Van Dorn earned his first save of the year to seal the 9-5 Musketeer victory.

Red Bud looked to follow on the strong momentum of the following week on Monday as the team went to Waterloo. Caleb Langrehr struggled in the first inning as the Bulldogs took a 4-0 lead. At the plate, the team could not get anything going as Waterloo continued to add to the lead with one run in the second and two more in the third. With a 7-0 lead, Waterloo was in control late in the game as Red Bud’s sluggish day at the plate carried into the fifth as the Bulldogs short-gamed the Musketeers 10-0.
The Musketeers sit at 4-4 on the season with a full week of games to come.