Merchants are 2-0 at 1st Weekend of Walcott ISC Tournament

     The Thomson Area Merchants finished the first weekend of the Walcott Iowa Area ISC Qualifier 2-0. Strong pitching performances produced two 2 hit shutouts moving the Merchants into the winner's bracket semifinals.
     In the first game the Merchants needed 7 innings to finally push a run across to beat the Hopeville Hackers 1-0. Jonas Mach finally joined the team after arriving from his home country of the Czech Republic and struck out 15 batters.
     The Merchants got a walk-off single by "Q" Cody after Mike House led of the bottom of the 7th with a single. Then Ray Sharp sacrificed House to second and reached first himself thanks to a throwing error. Kevin Anderson hit an infield single to load the bases for Cody. Karl Golan finished with 2 hits including a double.
     On Sunday the Merchants didn't waste any time scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the first inning on sacrifice flies by Scott Beal and Marcelo Malatesta. The Merchants added another run in the second, two in the fourth, and one in the fifth to win 6-0 over Quad City Door.
  Cody, House, Sharp, and Anderson all had two hits apiece. Karl Golan struck out 16 batters for the win.
     The Merchants will be in action at Walcott again this Friday night at 8 pm. The tournament will conclude on Saturday. Thanks to Karl Golan for helping the team out last weekend.
  The latest news, results, and stats can be found on the team website at thomsonfastpitch.com