REL/Mohawk Technology blanks Houghton Building Supply/Stanton

REL/Mohawk Technology blanks Houghton Building Supply/Stanton

12-0 shutout in Twilight League action

REL/Mohawk Technology’s Ned Larson blue makes his way home for a run against Houghton Building Supply/Stanton during a game Thursday in Stanton. (Eddie O’Neill/For the Gazette)

STANTON — The bats of REL/Mohawk Technology started off warm and then got hot on Thursday. One run in the first and another in the second turned into 10 more runs after five. Meanwhile, they kept their opponent Houghton Building Supply/Stanton from scoring and earned a 12-0 win in Twilight League baseball action.

It was Stanton’s first loss (4-1) of the young season.

“We put the ball into play and ran the bases well,” said REL player-coach Travis Pietila. “We had great pitching as well.”

On the mound for REL was righthander Benny Kerenan, who recently starred for Hancock in high school baseball. He struck out the first three batters he faced and added four more in a five-inning game. He walked just three for the complete-game win.

Errors seemed to haunt Stanton each inning. In the first, a walk from starter Bryce Hanner to REL’s Benny Keranen led to him scoring on a wild pitch a couple batters later. In the second, Pietila scored on an error to right field to make it 2-0 REL.

In the third, throwing errors in the infield by Stanton led to runs by Ned Larson and Dean Jurmu. Gerald Johnson slapped a base hit and scored, as did Pietila, to make it 6-0.

The REL bats were cold in the fourth, but they sealed the mercy-rule win in the fifth with six more runs. It started with a walk to Gerald Johnson. Then came base raps by Chase Kerenan, Benny Keranen and Howard Johnson. All four scored.

An error at shortstop put Pietila on, and Grant Johnson earned a walk. Those two were runs number five and six.

REL put down their opponent one, two, three in the bottom of the fifth and improved to 2-2 on the season.

Tuesday, Northern Driveline and Stanton will face off in Stanton. REL will take on Coldwell Banker Craig Heinonen in Wolverine. Both games will start at 6:30 p.m.