Sam Crouch hit a two-run triple in the sixth inning to put Roland-Story ahead for good as the Norsemen rallied to avoid an upset at the hands of South Hamilton, winning 7-5 Wednesday night in Heart of Iowa Conference baseball at Jewell.  

The victory improved R-S to 14-4 overall and 8-2 in conference play headed into an HOIC home game Thursday night against Jefferson-Scranton.  That game can be heard live on NorsemenNetwork.com with play-by-play coverage starting around 7:30 p.m.

Crouch’s big hit came with two outs in the sixth inning and the Norse trailing, 5-4, and it scored Zeb Hammes and Gunnar Wyatt.  Cole Keltner had driven in a run earlier in the inning with a bases loaded infield fly that scored Trent Muhlenberg from third.

Roland-Story had a 3-0 lead as Muhlenberg pitched three perfect innings, striking out seven of nine batters faced.  Hammes doubled home a run in the third and Wyatt brought home another in the same inning.  In the Norsemen fourth, Bryce Sampson singled to score Matt Swanson.  But South Hamilton - with just one conference win coming into the game - exploded for five runs on six hits in the bottom of the fourth to take a 5-3 lead.

Bryce Holdredge gave R-S an insurance run in the top of the seventh, leading off the inning with a towering solo home run to left field.

Wyatt came on it pitching relief of Muhlenberg and got the victory.  Hammes was the Edward Jones player-of-the-game for the Norse, going 3-for-4 at the plate and making a key defensive player in the bottom of the seventh to help preserve the win.

You can listen to the play-by-play broadcast of the game by clicking on the Audio Archives link to the left.  You can read more about the game in next week’s edition of the Story City Herald.