Muskies, Irish, Orioles and Lakers earn playoff byes

New Market, St. Patrick, New Prague and Faribault earned the top four seeds for the Region 3C playoffs and byes into the tournament, as the Dakota-Rice-Scott League finished play Sunday, July 21.

New Market and St. Patrick had already clinched the top two spots. The Irish defeated the Muskies at St. Patrick on Sunday. New Prague defeated both Prior Lake and Shakopee on the season’s final day, giving the Orioles a 14-9 season record to clinch the third spot.

Faribault, which was idle on Sunday, finished at 13-10, tied with both Montgomery and Prior Lake, and earned the No. 4 seed via tie-breakers.

Four best-of-three DRS playoff series are scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, Thursday, July 25 and, if necessary, Friday, July 26. Pairings are: No. 12 Shakopee vs. No. 5

Montgomery No. 11 Webster vs. No. 6

Prior Lake No. 10 Union Hill vs. No. 5

St. Benedict No. 9 Veseli vs. No. 8 Lonsdale

The four series winners will play on the road for the first round of the doubleelimination Region 3C playoffs. Pairings will be determined based on league standings and which teams win the series. First round games are Sunday, July 28, with games at New Market and New Prague at 1 p.m. and St. Patrick and Faribault at 4 p.m. The tournament continues with games on July 30 and 31, and August 2, 4, 7, 9 and, if necessary, Aug. 11.

The top four teams will advance to the State Class C Tournament, running from August 16 through Labor Day in Maple Lake, Delano and Dassel.

July 16 Bulldogs 7, Sox 1 Danny Meger struck out seven batters in seven innings as Union Hill defeated Webster 7-1. Conrad Masberg pitched the final two innings for the Bulldogs. John Barten threw five innings to take the loss for Webster. Jack Becker was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, Derek Masberg and Conrad Masberg had two hits each. Gage Bergman drove in Webster’s only run.

July 17 Lakers 9, Coyotes 0 Faribault’s Matt Lane pitched seven innings and allowed just one hit while striking out seven as the Lakers defeated Shakopee 9-0. Tyler Francis closed the game with two innings pitched. Dylan Valentyn had four hits and three RBIs. Blake Langeruud had three hits and scored two runs, while Joe Grote drove in two runs on two hits.

Irish 12, Orioles 1 A four-run first inning helped St. Patrick snap New Prague’s nine-game winning streak with a 12-1 win at New Prague. Collin Denk struck out eight batters in four innings and allowed just three hits for the win. Philip Garcia and Zach Seurer both pitched in relief. Kyle Rhodus, Matt Ambroz, Seth Ambroz and Will Walsh had two hits each. Seth Ambroz had a homer and five RBIs. Colin Dorzinski had two of New Prague’s five hits. Zach Sirek pitched five innings and took the loss.

Mudcats 15, Warriors 4 Prior Lake scored 10 runs in the seventh inning to come from behind and defeat Veseli 15-4 in eight innings. Jake Lehrer had two hits and two RBIs, and Lucas Pumper had a home run and three RBIs. Luke Weber pitched eight innings and struck out eight for the win. Ben Doerr had an RBI double for Veseli. Jackson Jirik pitched 6-1/3 innings and took the loss. July 19 Express 5, Muskies 3 Elko defeated New Market 5-3 at Elko. No summary was provided.

Saints 13, Coyotes 4 St. Benedict defeated Shakopee 13-4 on Friday in Shakopee. Jeremy Heitkamp had four hits while Zach Bakko had three for the Saints. Alex Donkers got the win with four innings of relief. Shakopee was led by a two-run triple by Alec Pauly and two-run double from Andy Lazzari.

Saturday July 20 Sox 2, Coyotes 1 Webster scored twice in the sixth inning and held on for a 2-1 win over Shakopee Saturday. William Chalmers and Brent Cheney each had two hits and scored a run for Webster, Jeremy Wieland struck out 12 batters and allowed just one run on eight hits to earn the complete game win. Shakopee’s lone run came on a base hit by Ben Fredenburg, who drove in Chris Isensee. Fredenberg and Justin Turcotte each had two wins. Isensee struck out nine in eight innings, but was tagged with the loss.

Aces 4, Bulldogs 3 Tyler Milford and Isaac Pint combined on a sevenhitter leading Lonsdale to a 4-3 victory over Union Hill. Devin Vosejpka led the Aces with three hits and an RBI. Conrad Masberg went the distance for Union Hill while shutting out the Aces over the final eight innings. Derek Masberg paced the Bulldogs with two hits and an RBI.

Sunday July 21 Mallards 6, Warriors 1 Montgomery defeated Veseli 6-1. No summary was provided.

Orioles 10, Mudcats 4 New Prague jumped to an early lead with three runs in the first inning and never surrendered it in a 10-4 win over Prior Lake. They used a fiverun seventh inning to put the game out of reach. Leading hitters for the Orioles with two hits apiece were Austin Bachman, Justin Novak, Jake Klein, Colin Dorzinski and Jake Deutsch. Bachman drove in three runs and Novak and Deutsch each drove in two. For the Mudcats Alex Waterman had three hits and an RBI, Cole Bjorge and BJ Benz had 2 hits each and Benz had two RBIs. Nathan Sprouls was the winning pitcher, striking out 10 hitters in 7-2/3 innings. Isaac Saad took the loss for the Mudcats.

Saints 3, Sox 0 St Benedict survived a nohit bid from Webster starter Ben Fredrickson and defeated the Sox 3-0. Fredrickson took a no-hitter into the eighth before Paul Hentges and Sam Bakko singled. Cole Minnick pitched six strong shutout innings. Shane Ahlbrecht earned the six-out save. Nate Nielsen had two hits for the Sox.

Irish 2, Muskies 1 The league’s top two Class C teams faced off in the season finale and St. Patrick registered a 2-1 extra inning win. Pitching ruled the day but some timely hitting led to late fireworks in front of a very large St. Patrick Church Festival crowd. Brett Herber pitched the first five innings, allowing just one run which scored with two outs and nobody on when Kyle Rhodus singled and Jack Friedges doubled to right center, scoring Rhodus. Nick Spitt pitched the first six innings for the Irish and gave way to Zach Seurer, who pitched through the ninth. It was in the ninth inning with two outs when Joe McKibbon singled in the tying run to force an extra frame. The Irish led off the 10th with a Derrick Issacson single. He advanced on a bunt by Spitt and went to third on a fly ball to deep right. Jace Westman walked to bring up Rhodus, who singled home the game winner. Christian Medick picked up the win in relief.

Orioles 13, Coyotes 1 New Prague used a sevenrun second inning to take a commanding lead early. Colin Dorzinski scored 3 times and hit a triple, Austin Bachman had a pair of doubles, and Cade Pavek drove in three runs with a double to the left-centerfield gap. The Orioles used a squadron of pitchers in the game with Chad Skluzacek, Zach Sirek and Max Fierst each pitching two innings with Frank Ruzicka and Mitch Shambour each pitching one inning. For the Coyotes Zack Hoffman had a single and scored the lone run. Sirek got the win for the Orioles. Ben Fredenburg took the loss for the Coyotes.