Lonsdale squeezes way into state tournament
The Lonsdale Aces of the Dakota-Rice-Scott baseballleague won a pair of extra-inning games over the weekend to qualify for the State Class C baseball tournament that begins this weekend. The Aces qualified with a 2-1 win over Morristown Sunday, with the winning run scoring on a suicide squeeze.
The Blue Earth Pirates of the 13-60 League won four straight games to win the Region 4C tournament. All games were held at Montgomery.
Both Blue Earth and Lonsdale will play in the state Class C tournament on Saturday, Aug. 22 at Gaylord.
Lonsdale plays Winsted, Region 7 champion, at 5 p.m. In a game to follow, Blue Earth plays Glencoe, the Region 7 runnerup, at 7:30 p.m.
The Aces have drafted Brent Vollbrecht, a pitcher from Morristown, onto their roster for the state tournament.
The Region 4C results from last weekend:
Saturday, August 15
Blue Earth 8,
Morristown 1
The Pirates defeated the Morries in the first game on Saturday, 8-1, clinching a state tournament berth.
Lonsdale 7, Waterville 6
Phil Tisdel, pitching in relief for the Aces, retired 10 of the last 11 batters faced as Lonsdale rallied to defeat Waterville, 7-6, eliminating the Indians from the region playoff.
Lonsdale trailed 5-0 early and 6-2 after five innings before coming back to score five runs in the last three innings to win.
The final and winning run came in the last of the 10th with two outs when Derek Vosejpka singled to left through the infield, Robbie Marshall ran and Mike Jirik and Paul Tisdel got consecutive hits for the victory.
Tim Van Houdt homered with a man on in the first inning, putting Waterville out in front, 2-0.
A hit batter and three hits by the Indians made it 5-0 in the third before Tom Popp hit a two-run homer in the fourth for the Aces to close it to 5-2.
A single by Brandon Johnson followed by an error and two wild pitches made it 6-2 for Waterville in the fifth inning.
In the eighth, Ryan Van Dusen opened with a single for the Aces, Chad Vosejpka doubled in a run after two outs and Kevin Kalina hit a two-run homer to make it 6-5 Waterville.
In the last of the ninth, Mi ke Jirik opened with a single, Aaron Kes ran, Paul Tisdel sacrificed and Kyle Kalina singled to left to make it 6-6.
Jirik had three hits for the Aces, Popp added a double and Paul Tisdel hit a double and single.
Chad Atherton, Terry Schultz and Johnson had three hits apiece for Waterville.
The line score: R H E
Waterville....203 010 000 0 - 6 13 0
Lonsdale.....000 200 031 1 - 7 13 2
Jeff Giesler, Terry Schultz (7-2/3) and Tim Van Houdt. Matt Branson, Derek Christenson (2-2/3), Phil Tisdel (6-2/3) and Tom Popp.
Sunday, Aug. 16
Lonsdale 2,
Morristown 1
Each team scored an unearned run early in the game and those were the only scores until the 10th inning when Lonsdale scored once in the top of the 10th and it was enough for a 2-1 win over Morristown.
The game was suspended by heavy rain in the seventh inning on Saturday night and completed early on Sunday afternoon.
Kyle Kalina doubled and scored the first Aces run with the help of an error in the first inning.
Kory Green was safe on an error and scored for the Morries in the second inning following a sacrifice bunt and a single by Josh Vollbrecht.
In the deciding 10th (on Sunday), Chad Vosejpka opened with a single, advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Kevin Kalina and a Brad Vosejpka single and scored on a suicide squeeze bunt by Derek Vosejpka.
Mike Jirik was the winning pitcher, yielding one hit and facing 10 batters in 3-2/3 innings of relief pitching.
Kyle Kalina led all batters with four for five.
The line score: R H E
Lonsdale .....100 000 000 1 - 2 10 2
Morristown..010 000 000 0 - 1 7 2
Jaron Christenson, Mike Jirik (6-2/3) and Tom Popp. Brent Vollbrecht and Bob Olson.
Blue Earth 12,
Lonsdale 2
Aaron Wendt hit a two-run homer for the Pirates during a three-run first inning and Blue Earth was on its way to a 12-2 win over the Aces in the title game which followed the rain-suspended game.
Blue Earth closed with eight runs in the last three innings and totaled 16 hits.
Garrett Anderson pitched the first three innings in the win, yielding no hits but was plagued by wildness in the second inning, which led to Lonsdale's first run, a hit by pitch RBI by Derek Christenson, Brad Vosejpka scoring.
Lonsdale's three hits were late in the game, off Cody Sukalski, the winning pitcher. Robbie Marshall, Matt Vosejpka and Kevin Kalina hit singles and the seventh inning RBI went to Zach Sirek, on a fielder's choice.
Justin Schiable had two doubles and two singles for the winners and Sukalski hit a double and two singles. Todd Rasmussen drove in three runs with two singles.
The line score: R H E
Blue Earth........310 034 1 - 12 16 0
Lonsdale ..........010 000 1 - 2 3 6
Garrett Anderson, Cody Sukalski (3-1/3) and T.J. Stallman, Daniel Woodall (5), Jason Churchill (7). Paul Ciochetto, Phil Tisdel (2), Zach Sirek (5), Aaron Kes (7) and Chad Vosejpka, Tyler Bednar (6).
