Pleasant Plains’ Joel Niermann and Athens’ Jake Nance went toe-to-toe for 5 1/2 innings in the Cardinals’ Sangamo baseball opener on Tuesday. A pair of singles and a pair of errors blew it open in the bottom of the sixth for Plains in a 5-0 win over the Warriors.
Niermann, a freshman, struck out seven over six scoreless innings to pick up the win. Nance struck out four over five plus innings in the losing effort.
The Cardinals are now 11-0 on the season and 1-0 in conference play. Athens falls to 4-5 (0-2).
