St. Benedict falls in first round at state

The St. Benedict Saints bowed out of the State Class C Baseball Tournament with a disappointing 4-3 loss to Milroy Sunday, Aug. 21, at Brownton.

The game, and six others over the weekend, was moved from Hutchinson to Brownton because of flooding in the Hutchinson area that affected access to the ball park as well as field conditions. The eighth game was played in Litchfield.

Two other teams from the Dakota-Rice-Scott League also lost their first round games Saturday.

That leaves the Prior Lake Mudcats as the last DRS team alive in the tournament. The Region 3C champions had a first round bye and will face Loretto at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, in Hutchinson in the second round. If they win, they would advance to the tournaments’ final weekend with a game on Saturday, Sept. 3.

Irish 4, Saints 3 St. Benedict took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and made it 3-0 with two runs in the third, but couldn’t hold on as Milroy tied the game at 3-3 in the sixth and scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Catcher Johnny Dittman drove in two runs and Andrew Huss had two hits to lead the St. Benedict offense. Mitchell Martin scored two runs and Jeremy Heitkamp also scored for the Saints, who had five hits in the game. Michael Pauly started and went five innings for St. Benedict. He allowed five hits and three runs, all earned, while striking out four. Heitkamp pitched three innings, allowing one hit and one run to take the loss. He also struck out four. Milroy’s Tyler Peterson had two hits and Mason Schnaible had an RBI double. The winning pitcher was Matt Lytle, draftee from Fairmont, who pitched six innings of relief, allowing two hits and striking out four. Martins 4, Mallards 3 In what Montgomery manager Christian Anderson said was a “fun game to be a part of,” St. Martin scored two runs in the seventh inning to take a 4-3 win over Montgomery at Dassel Saturday, Aug. 20.

“Ultimately we made too many small mistakes and failed to do some of the little things,” Anderson said. “Johnny Krocak did a nice job on the mound, pitching seven innings. Ted Christian and Dan Feneis (draftee from Union Hill) pitched two scoreless innings of relief.” St. Martin scored a pair of runs in the top of the third, but Montgomery answered back with a pair in the bottom of the inning. The Mallards took a 3-2 lead with a run in the sixth, but it was short-lived as the Martins answered right back with two in the seventh. Pat Lloyd had two hits for Montgomery and scored a run. Mike Flicek, Ryan Iverson and Dalton Zeug each had RBIs for the Mallards, who had eight hits, all singles. Krocak allowed seven hits and four runs, three earned, in his seven innings. He struck out four. Christian pitched 1-2/3 innings, allowing one hit and striking out two, and Feneis struck out the only batter he faced. St. Martin had two hits each from Kyle Lieser and Bryan Schlangen. Ben Schroeder pitched eight innings for the win, allowing eight hits and striking out six. Patrick Courtney, draftee from New London- Spicer, got the save, pitching a perfect ninth inning. Anderson said a good following of Mallard and DRS fans helped provide a good atmosphere. “This was a big step for the Mallards, and if the team stays intact, we’ll be back in the state tournament for years to come,” he said.

Eagles 4, Coyotes 2 Regal’s Nathan Meyer hit a two-run walk-off home run in the 12th inning to lead the Eagles to a 4-2 win over the Shakopee Coyotes Saturday in Dassel. Shakopee took an early lead in the fourth, but Regal scored twice in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead. A sacrifice fly by Matt Theis in the eighth tied it and forced extra innings. Shakopee’s Logan Becker had three hits and Theis had two RBIs. Shakopee had nine hits. Alex Johnson started for the Coyotes and Nate Rost, draftee from New Market, pitched six innings of relief to take the loss. Meyer had four hits for the Eagles, with two doubles in addition to his home run.