4 teams vie for 2 remaining DRS playoff byes

Union Hill’s Dustin Steinhoff delivers a pitch during the Bulldogs’ win over Montgomery Sunday, July 14. (Chuck Kajer Photo)

With one weekend of play remaining, New Market clinched first place in the Dakota-Rice-Scott standings and St. Patrick has clinched a first-round bye for the playoffs in games played through Sunday, July 14.

Four teams - New Prague, Prior Lake, Faribault and Montgomery, all have 12 wins and are in the hunt for the two remaining playoff byes. New Prague is currently in third place with eight losses and has three games remaining on its schedule. Prior Lake, with nine losses, is in fourth with two games left to play, while Faribault and Montgomery, both with 10 losses, have one game left on their schedule.

The DRS playoffs will begin with four best-of-three series, with the fifth through eighth place teams hosting the bottom four teams in the standings. Games will be played Tuesday, July 23, Thursday, July 25 and, if necessary, Friday or Saturday, July 26 or 27.

The four series winners will advance to the Region 3C double-elimination tournament, which begins on Sunday, July 28, with the top four seeds hosting games.

Monday, July 8 Orioles 18, Bulldogs 4 New Prague defeated Union Hill in a game that was closer than the score indicated. New Prague took an early lead making the score 8-4 after the fifth inning before opening it up in the seventh and eighth. Nathan Sprouls went six innings, striking out seven to earn the win. Top hitters for the Bulldogs were Derek Masberg with two hits, Conrad Masberg with a solo home run and Joe Becker with an RBI single. The Orioles’ top hitters were Eric Wagner with two hits and four RBIs, Justin Novak with two hits and four runs scored, James Fuerniss with two hits, and Jake Deutsch with three hits. Max Fierst pitched the last two innings for the Orioles. Conrad Masberg took the loss for the Bulldogs.

Tuesday, July 9 Irish 2, Mallards 1 St. Patrick’s Zach Seurer and Montgomery’s Ted Christian went toe-to-toe in a well-played game in Montgomery. Seurer pitched eight innings, allowed one earned run on just four hits and didn’t allow a walk. Christian went the distance striking out 10 Irish, walked four and allowed four hits. Neither side committed an error. In the fourth, Jack Friedges singled and later scored on a groundout by Seth Ambroz. The Mallards tied iy in the sixth when Aaron Dwyer singled and Tom Flicek was hit by a pitch. Pat Lloyd smashed a double which scored Dwyer but Flicek was tagged out on a good relay at home. In the ninth Matt Ambroz walked and Seth Ambroz smoked a double to left scoring his elder brother from first with teh game-winning run.

Wednesday, July 10 Warriors 8, Irish 5 Veseli hosted the St. Patrick Irish and claimed an 8-5 win. The Irish scored two in the first, on three hits and a walk. Veseli fired back in the second, exploding for six runs off seven hits and one hit by a pitch. They would add two more in the third, then held on for the win. Seth Ambroz led the Irish with an RBI double and a solo home run. Mason Mayer and Drew Picka led the offense for the Warriors. Matt Perkinson went the distance and took the win. Bryce Simon took the loss.

Lakers 11, Bulldogs 0 Joe Grote led the Faribault Lakers to an 11-0 win over Union Hill. Grote got the win on the mound, pitching six innings and he also had two hits and three RBIs. Mudcats 3, Saints 0 Topher Rose threw seven innings, striking out eight and allowing just three hits to get the win. as Prior Lake defeated St. Benedict 3-0. Ben Morrison got the save. Alex Donkers pitched six innings, allowing three runs, one earned, and five hits. St. Benedict had singles from Jeremy Heitkamp, Nick Heitkamp and Carter Johnson. The Mudcats were led by Johnny Houston and Brad Schoenrock with two hits apiece and Jake Lehrer had an RBI single.

Thursday, July 11 Mudcats 3, Aces 2 Jake Lehrer hit a walk off home run with two outs in the ninth inning to defeat Lonsdale 3-2. Lonsdale had tied the game in the ninth with two runs. Johnny Houston had three hits for Prior Lake. Isaac Saad pitched 8- 1/3 innings. Ben Morrison relieved in the ninth and picked up the win. Lonsdale had seven hits and was paced by Ryan Roby and Marty Kalina with two apiece. Isaac Pint pitched the first seven innings and Tylor Milford suffered the loss.

Friday, July 12 Lakers 6, Mallards 1 Faribault’s Egan Bonde struck out 15 as Faribault defeated Montgomery 6-1 Friday. Dylan O’Neil went 2- for-2 and his two-out, tworun single broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning. Montgomery’s Johnny Krocak pitched a complete game in taking the loss, striking out 13 batters. Mike Flicek and Cole Pint each had two hits for the Mallards.

Saints 9, Bulldogs 2 St. Benedict defeated Union Hill 9-2 on Friday in Union Hill. Tanner Oakes and Nick Heitkamp had three hits each for the Saints. Jon Huss had three RBIs and Carter Johnson homered for St. Benedict. Adam Giesen had two hits, including an RBI double in the fourth. Jeremy Heitkamp, Oakes, and Cole Minnick combined on the 5-hitter. Dan Feneis took the loss for the Bulldogs.

Muskies 2, Aces 1 A pair of eighth-inning home runs gave New Market a 2-1 win over Lonsdale, clinching first place in the league standings for the Muskies. Andy Henkemeyer started and pitched five solid innings for the Fish, scattering five hits, striking out four, and allowing just one run. Joe Sabal went for the Aces, going 4-2/3 while allowing seven hits and striking out three. Lonsdale started the third with back-toback singles from Joe Yetzer and Cade Readmond. Yetzer would come around to score on a wild pitch. Kyle Bergstrom and Brett Herber homered in the eighth for the Muskies. Tony Vocca threw the last four innings, allowing just two hits while fanning 10 as he picked up the win in relief.

Sox 3, Coyotes 2 Webster travelled to Shakopee and came home with a 3-2 win. Jeremy Wieland allowed six hits and one earned run, striking out seven in the complete game win. Jared Tucker went 2-for- 4 and scored two runs, Adam Neuger doubled and Brett Hoffman singled and scored a run. For Webster, Zak Hoffman took the loss, pitching six innings and allowing five hits while striking out seven. He also had two hits, both doubled. Jeff Hohenstein doubled and drove in a run.

Sunday, July 14 Bulldogs 15, Mallards 14 Union Hill scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to collect a 15-14 come-frombehind win over Montgomery. Each team used three pitchers. Kody Glende took the loss for Montgomery while Sean O’Neill secured the win for the Dogs. Derek Masberg had four hits, and three RBIs, including a two-run homer. Adam Giesen and Zak Dubanoski each had two hits and Sam Novak had three hits and three RBIs. Montgomery’s Cole Pint had three hits and 4 RBIs, including a first-inning homer. Johnny Krocak drove in three runs.

Orioles 8, Warriors 7 New Prague hung on to defeat Veseli in a roller coaster of a game. Veseli struck first during the third inning when Corey Friedges hit a double to the left field gap driving in two runs. The Orioles came back with three runs in the fifth and four runs in the sixth to take the lead. During that seven-run span Ben Buthe drove in three, including a two-run double and James Fuerniss collected two RBIs off of a single to right. Veseli bounced back in the bottom of the sixth with four runs of their own using hits from Tyler Busch, Jack Krouse, Mason Mayer and Ben Doerr. The Orioles would score one in the seventh and Veseli would score one in the eighth to end the scoring. Cade Pavek had two hits, two stolen bases and scored the deciding run from third in the seventh on an errant throw. Top hitters for Veseli were Friedges, Busch and Neil Engler with two hits apiece. Nathan Sprouls gets the win, with Will Forberg taking the loss.

Saints 13, Sox 6 St. Benedict defeated Webster 13-6 on Sunday in Webster. Andrew Huss had four hits and three RBIs for St. Benedict. Nick Heitkamp had three hits. Zach Bakko hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning to break the game open. Mitchell Martin also homered and drove home three. Webster had 13 hits, led by Nick Hansen with three. Adam Schmitz added a two-run double as nine different Sox players had hits. Matthias Duevel earned the win in relief for St. Benedict. Jack Meyer took the loss.

Lakers 2, Muskies 1 Faribault pitcher Porter Sartor came on with one out in the first inning after starter Jack Helgeson left the game with an arm injury. He went 8-2/3 with nine strikeouts to lead the Lakers to a 2-1 win over league-leading New Market. Blake Langeruud scored the winning run on an error after stealing second base. New Market’s Nate Rost carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning. He struck out 11 batters in seven innings, but took the loss. Faribault had just two hits for the game, but got the win. Prior to the game, Faribault honored Rick Rost, a former player and coach for the Lakers and former Faribault High School coach, retiring his number. Rost is currently an assistant coach for New Market and his sons, Nate and Nick, play for the Muskies.

Express 12, Irish 11 A wild game at St. Patrick’s Bonin Field on Fan Appreciation Day saw 23 runs, 31 hits, 26 walks and nine errors. Elko prevailed in 11 innings by the score of 12- 11. There were four home runs in the game, two by each team. TJ Evanson hit a 3-run homer in the first which propelled his team to an early 8- 0 lead. The Irish came back slowly, assisted by back to back solo home runs by Kyle Rhodus and Jack Friedges. With the score sitting at 8-4 in favor of the Express, the Irish stormed back for a 6- run seventh inning, but Elko would immediately tie the game at 10-10 in the top of the eighth. Each team scored in their half of the 10th inning but Elko’s Jason Grimm hit a solo home run in the top of the 11th that St. Patrick could not overcome. Leading the offense for Elko were Ryan Bastyr with four hits and Michael Fredrickson and Ryan Van Dusen with three hits. The Irish were led by Kyle Rhodus who was 4-for- 6. Three others had two hits apiece. Winning pitcher was Kyle Kraska and the losing pitcher was Christian Medick.

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