PLUM CITY — The Spring Valley Cardinals are looking to cement their name atop the Dunn-St. Croix standings at the conclusion of the season, beating Elmwood/Plum City on Monday night in Plum City 7-2. With the win, Spring Valley is 5-1 overall on the year with a 3-0 conference record.

“Pitched well for most of the game. Put ourselves in positions to make plays. Played some solid defense when our pitching went awry at times,” Spring Valley Head Coach Brandon Walczak said. “Had some good clutch hits, some quality at-bats. Would have liked to see us score a few more runs with runners in scoring position, but that’s how baseball goes.”

Spring Valley got on the board early as catcher Caleb Bartko laced a single to score a runner that reached on an error. EPC avoided further damage, but starting pitcher Hudson Hewitt drove up his pitch count due to some defensive miscues.

Spring Valley plated three in the third with a two-run double from Trevor Forster and an RBI single from pitcher Will Biggs to help himself out. The Wolves loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning with nobody out, but a pop out and two looking strikeouts got the Cardinals out of the inning untouched.

Teigen Bauer and Lucas Glaus had run-scoring singles in the fourth; however, that would be all the offensive output they would muster.

“Had a couple shaky innings here and there. I think sometimes it’s just command or missing location,” Walczak said. “But, overall, he seems to find his way to get back into it.”

Stacking wins early on is crucial to building confidence, and Walczak said that will especially be important for the players that will need to step into larger roles later in the season.

“I think it allows them to build some confidence in themselves,” Walczak said. “We look to aspire to compete with Elk Mound and Mondovi, and I think if we put complete games together, we have that opportunity.”

Walczak is focusing on the bottom of the order. He said their approach will make or break the team going forward.

“I would say it’s probably the bottom of our order,” Walczak said. “Those are the guys that you’ve kind of got to lean on to turn over to the top. There’s been games where they’ve come through and there’s also been games where they haven’t.”

For EPC, they are starting to see some building of core aspects. The loss ultimately came down to costly mistakes.

“Kind of came out slow, they kind of jumped on us,” EPC Head Coach Cory Brathall said. “We made a couple errors in the first inning, and I think if we make those plays and get out of that inning clean, Hudson’s pitch count doesn’t get up. It’s just that domino effect.”

It was a three-day weekend and a day off of school for the Wolves. While Brathall said a change in routine may have played a role, the team is taking a no excuses approach.

“Every conference game, you’re going to have to bring your A game to get a win,” Brathall said. “There’s no days off.”

EPC pitching has been dominant in recent weeks for the Wolves, with Glaus allowing just one hit on 16 strikeouts in a 1-0 conference win over Colfax and three more games allowing three or fewer runs since April 10. Despite standing at 2-5 overall and 1-3 in conference, there have been signs of life for an exciting year.

“We’ve got some guys that when they’re pitching well, we have a good shot of winning some games,” Brathall said.

Brathall said a loss is a loss and the same frustrations come along with it, yet they are also feeling positive based on the amount of progress they have seen. He mentioned this team is coachable and it has shown.

“It’s come a long ways,” Brathall said. “We have a long way still to go, but we’ve come a long way as a baseball team and baseball program.”