CRESTLINE — Crestline and Colonel Crawford opened up the 2025 regular season with a doubleheader in Crestline. The two teams wanted to get off to a strong start and the Eagles won a pair of games over the Bulldogs.

Crawford dropped an overmatched Crestline team, 14-0, in the opener. The Bulldogs played that first game without five starters. The starters were back for the second game and Crawford came away with a 6-2 win.

The Bulldogs, playing with a lot of underclassmen in the opener, used a lot of players out of position and committed seven errors in the game. Crawford also stole seven bases and rolled.

“We had five guys out for game one today,” Crestline manager Cameron Witt said. “There were a lot of guys playing positions that they had never played before. We just have to work before in practice. We just have to execute.”

Crawford coach Jordan Oliver felt that his team did a nice job of taking advantage of Crestline miscues.

“I was happy with our guys’ aggressiveness at the plate,” Oliver said. “I thought we did a good job of being patient and then attacking the ball when they threw strikes.

“I was also happy with our baserunning; that was a big emphasis for our team,” Oliver added. “We have good team speed, and I thought we did a nice job of being aggressive on the basepaths.”

Crestline committed three errors in the first two frames and made things difficult for Bulldogs’ starter, sophomore Weston Clark. Clark allowed five runs in three innings but just one run was earned.

Colonel Crawford starter Van Wintersteller was far more effective. Wintersteller allowed just one hit, a fourth inning double by Adam Burton.

Parker Weithman, Kayden Carpenter, Wintersteller and Joe Zizzo each got singles off Clark in the first three innings and the Eagles led, 5-0.

Finn Belcik replaced Clark on the hill and finished the game. Grady Riggle and Deagan Moore singled in the fourth and Wintersteller singled, Riggle and Nate McCartney doubled, and Moore singled in the fifth and final frame.

“We can’t control what the other team does; when they make errors we have to take advantage of it, and we did today,” Oliver said.

Witt felt his team was not aggressive at the plate.

“We have to get the guys swinging the bat,” Witt said. “We just weren’t moving the lineup around. We have a lineup that can, and will, produce a lot of runs. But they just weren’t swinging the bat and wasn’t moving the lineup.

“Then, when you add up all the errors we had, and that just kind of kills it,” he added.