A furious late-inning comeback by the Pella High baseball team came up just 180 feet short in a 4 – 3 loss to Newton in conference play Monday night. Pitcher Jacob Gleason was a little shaky to begin the ballgame, handing out several walks but ultimately coming out relatively unscathed, just giving up two runs through his first five innings. The Cardinals added their final two runs in the sixth, but the Little Dutch held tough, scoring one in the fifth and sixth to set the stage for the dramatic seventh inning. Tanner Wood led off with a double, and one out later, Christian Stafford doubled him home to close the gap to one. Derek Wrage came in and struck out the final two batters in the inning, however, to allow Newton to escape with the win. Following another loss in a one-run game, Coach Jesse Jablonski said his guys just have to keep their chins up and keep growing as ballplayers. Gleason finished the game with the loss, but did strike out ten batters in total through seven innings of work. Pella falls to 3 – 10 overall and 2 – 4 in the conference. They have a big opportunity to get back to .500 when they host Oskaloosa on Wednesday for a varsity doubleheader.

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