The bats of the Cardinals offense have been hot early on and, as a result, the baseball team is off and running to a 4-2 start.
Following wins over Ava (4-3) and Ruskin (20-10) in the first week of the season, Clinton used a 9 hit performance last Tuesday to propel themselves to a 7-5 road win over the Lincoln Cardinals.
Things looked bleak for Clinton in the early going as Lincoln jumped out to a 4-0 lead at the end of the second. The Cardinals got on the board in the fourth though when Kaiden Townsend hit a 2-out single scoring Will Golder to make it 4-1.
Both teams tallied 1 run apiece in the sixth and Clinton trailed, 5-2, but then came the seventh.
With 1 out, Keaton Cloud singled and he was followed by Kanden LaFarge, Maverick Martin, Will Golder, Jack English, Jacob Balke and Kaiden Townsend who all drew walks. Townsend's pushed in the go-ahead and run and the Cardinals got a fielder's choice by Cody Mitchell to score English to push the score to 7-5.
The Clinton pitching staff took it from there and helped seal the win for the Cardinals.
Martin picked up the win for Clinton while LaFarge, English and Townsend all saw time on the hill as well.
LaFarge also led the Cardinals offense with 2 hits while 1 each was contributed by Martin, Golder, English, Balke, Townsend, Mitchell and Cloud.
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On Thursday, the Cardinals were on the road at Knob Noster where they took on Warrensburg in the opening round of the Knob Noster Tournament.
Clinton suffered their first loss of the season by bowing to the Tigers in a 9-1 final.
The Cardinals mustered just 1 hit apiece off of the bats of Maverick Martin and Kaiden Townsend as the offense fell silent in the loss.
Martin absorbed the loss for Clinton.
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In their second game of the event, Clinton had trouble keeping up with Pleasant Hill as they fell victim to their second loss of the season, 9-3 to the Roosters.
A single by Jacob Balke put Clinton on the board in the top of the first but Warrensburg rebounded to take the lead in the bottom of the inning, 4-1.
The Cardinals got 1 run back in the top of the second, but Warrensburg matched that and then added 2 more in the bottom of the third to extend their lead to 7-2.
Both teams plated a run in the fifth and the Tigers tacked on 1 more in the sixth for the 9-3 final.
Ryan Lowe took the loss for the Cardinals. He surrendered 7 runs on 9 hits in 3.0 innings of work before giving way to Jack English and Conner Bramell in relief.
Kanden LaFarge and Jacob Balke picked up the only hits for the Cardinals.
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Clinton returned to the win column on Saturday when they defeated Northwest with a 10-6 final.
Maverick Martin collected 3 hits in 4 at-bats, picking up singles in the third and sixth innings and doubling in the fifth.
Northwest jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one but Clinton flipped the script in the second, scoring 5 runs on just 2 hits to take a 5-4 lead.
Northwest reclaimed the lead in the top of the fifth but the Cardinals took that back in the bottom of the frame when they tallied 3 runs to surge back in front, 8-6.
Clinton racked up 2 more runs in the bottom of the sixth for the 10-6 final.
Martin paced the Cardinals with 3 hits while Kanden LaFarge tallied 2.
Will Golder notched the win on the mound by going 6.0 innings and yielding 6 runs on 8 hits.
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The Cardinals hosted Pleasant Hill on Tuesday, will be back on the road at Versailles on Wednesday and then return home for another home tilt versus Center on Thursday. All of those games are slated for a 4:30 PM first pitch.
