With the July 4 holiday in the rearview mirror, many area town baseball teams are turning their focus to being in top form for the stretch drive and a spot in the Minnesota Baseball Association postseason tournaments.
In District 3B, Jordan, Union Hill, Webster and New Prague hold the top four spots. Eagle Lake was fifth in the standings last updated June 29. The top five teams receive a first-round bye in the playoffs. The fifththrough 11th-place teams will play a best-of-three series.
After a tough loss to Veseli Sunday in New Prague, the Orioles will be back in action today, Thursday, July 10, 7:30 p.m., against St. Benedict at Memorial Baseball Park in New Prague. Elko will be at Union Hill this evening, Thursday, July 10, 7:30 p.m.
Tomorrow, Friday, July 11, 7:30 p.m., Lonsdale heads south to Faribault, St. Patrick travels to face Hastings at 8 p.m. and Veseli heads to venerable Memorial Field for an 8 p.m. game.
Veseli 10, New Prague 6
Both starting pitchers were long gone by the time this Sunday, July 6, contest was in the books nearly three hours after it started. Luke Tupy started for the Warriors and his counterpart from New Prague was James Fuerniss. Tupy struck out seven over four innings but left trailing, 5-2. Fuerniss pitched five innings, allowing two runs and striking out three.
Scoring started in the first when Gavin Bergman doubled home Tom McBroom who had smacked a single earlier in the frame. Veseli had the answer in the next half inning when Stephen Nezerka doubled and Matt Friedges singled. Nate Picka followed up with a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Veseli grabbed a brief lead in the third inning after Kyle Carlberg walked and stole second base. He advanced to third on a ground ball and scored thanks to a passed ball.
The O’s stormed back in the third, plating three. After a single and a walk, Tupy had retired two Orioles when Jake Deutsch doubled and Aiden Dorzinski singled but was tagged out at second base to end the inning.
New Prague scored again in the fourth. After a single and an error, two Orioles struck out but Fuerniss helped his own cause with a bouncing single up the middle making the score 5-2.
Things settled down considerably until the eighth inning with Orioles’ relief pitchers seemingly on cruise control. The calm was met with a single a walk and a hit batter and Veseli had the bases loaded with no outs. Nezerka doubled to left, scoring two but coach got greedy and got the third man thrown out at home. Nezerka scored on a single by Nate Friedges however and pinch runner Jackson Jirik hustled home on a dropped infield pop up to take a 6-5 lead for the Warriors.
New Prague was not going to let the raccoon go easily however and the Orioles tied the game in the bottom of the eighth. After a fly-out, a walk and a fielder’s choice, the O’s had a man on first with two outs. Fuerniss, again clutch, doubled to left to tie the game.
Veseli went back to work in the 9th scoring four more runs. Matt Perkinson singled, Sam Friedges walked and Nezerka singled to again load bases for the Warriors. Matt Friedges walked and drove in the goahead run. After a passed ball scored Nezerka and advanced the runners, Picka singled to score another run. Nate Friedges hit into a double play but that scored a 10th run for Veseli.
In the ninth, reliever and winning pitcher, Max Fierst sandwiched a fly out between three walks, loading the bases with one out. Veseli closer Nate Friedges came in and induced a game-ending double play.
Webster 7, Lonsdale 0
The Sox jumped to a 4-0 lead after the first inning and cruised to a big win Sunday, July 6, in Webster.
Webster pitchers Peter Tveite (one inning), Jackson Renz (four innings), Ryan Joyner (three innings) and Jacob Hammer (one inning) limited the Aces to just three hits. The Sox added one run in the second inning and two more in the fourth thanks to a two-run blast from Tveite. Jake Bellile added three hits for the Sox.
New Market 3, Elko 1
On a night when the Express retired the jersey No. 12 of their longtime player and manager, Terry Fredrickson, they were unable to come up with a win over their crosstown rival.
The Muskies opened the scoring in the July 2 game with two runs in the second and one more in the third. The Express battled back, scoring once in the bottom of the sixth and again in the bottom of the ninth. But Elko’s hopes of an emotional win were thwarted by the lack of a clutch hit and the inability to take advantage of four New Market miscues. Both teams finished the game with six hits.
Cannon Falls 2, Union Hill 1
The Bulldogs came up just short in a dual between pitchers July 2 in Cannon Falls.
Scoring once in the second and another run in the third inning, the Bears won the game with four hits, three walks and one earned run. They stranded five runners.
Union Hill’s lone run crossed the plate in the sixth inning. Conrad Masberg smacked his second single of the day and trotted home after walks to Jack Becker and Henry Novak. But the Bulldogs lacked the big hit they needed. UH finished with nine hits and four walks, but stranded a dozen runners. Jack Kreutzian was the lone Union Hill player with multiple hits.
Charlie Otteson took the loss for the Bulldogs. He allowed only two hits, struck out three and walked one.
New Prague 4, Prior Lake 3
The O's defeated host Prior Lake Tuesday, July 1. The Mudcats scored first in the second inning with hits from Charlie Bredesen and Ryan Watterman.
New Prague took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning with a single from Gavin Bergman and then doubles from Dan Ring and Cam Prochaska.
he Mudcats scored two more with hits from Caden Quinn, Jerad Lehrer and John Parker.
In the fifth inning, Tom McBroom singled, stole second and scored on a fielder's choice from Dan Ring.
Prior Lake tied it up heading into the ninth inning. Bear Blaney doubled to center field, which helped the Mudcats tie the game at three in the bottom of the seventh.
With two outs in the ninth, McBroom and James Fuerniss both singled and Gavin Bergman ripped a double to give the Orioles a 4-3 lead.
Wes Kemming relieved Bergman in the ninth and slammed the door by striking out the side. Bergman had a big game with four hits, two for extra bases. He pitched eight innings to pick up the ‘W’ for the Orioles.
Local teams turning their focus to MBA post season
