Following a week of lots of area baseball action, the Hadley Buttermakers (Town Ball), the Heron Lake-Okabena American Legion and, maybe, the Adrian Junior Legion are still playing.
Hadley won a pair of competitive games against the Heron Lake Lakers in the opening round of the amateur baseball playoffs, winning by final scores of 11-6 (at Luverne last Wednesday evening, July 17) and 15-5 at Hadley (Sunday afternoon, July 20).
Heron Lake played well through the early innings of both games. The hustling Lakers earned a 3-2 lead in the first contest and the score was tied at 3-3 (after six innings) before the well-balanced Buttermakers scored four times in the top of the seventh. Sunday at Hadley, Heron Lake — despite stranding eight runners on base in the first four innings — held a 3-0 lead before a three-run homer by Buttermaker third baseman Blake Rogers tied the score a 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth.
Rogers smacked a line shot over the fence in left-center, just to the right of the high left-field fence. He ran the bases without any kind of a swagger and had a big smile on his face when he stepped on home plate. It was a well-hit ball and Blake’s demeanor was refreshing when compared to the taunting behavior of a player from another team in a recent game against the Lakers.
That towering solo blast, I am referring to, sailed way over the right-field fence and the hitter made sure to point at his opponents as he scored the tying run. That gesture was certainly not needed. Just be happy for you and your team — like Blake was — no need to “show up” the other team. They are striving to compete and have fun, too!
Back to the game at Hadley — the Buttermakers scored three more times in that fifth frame, but the Lakers battled back and came within one, trailing just 6-5 after six innings. A nine-run bottom of the seventh by Hadley’s offense ended the game early and advanced the Buttermakers into the eight-team Region 13C tournament which begins this week.
The season ended for Heron Lake, which competed well all season (beginning May 5) with a large roster, featuring a nice blend of new players along with plenty of veterans.
The season is also over for the Adrian A’s, who lost a pair of playoff games to the Lakefield Horned Frogs.
Adrian’s Senior Legion Team earned advancement to last week’s Southwest Sub-State Tournament at Luverne and played competitively against both Blue Earth and Minnesota Lake, coming up on the short end of 10-6 and 11-8 scores, respectively.
It was a very busy week of baseball for the community of Adrian, as the town’s Junior Legion baseball team also competed at Redbird Field, winning over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (8-3) on Sunday before being defeated 10-0 by host Luverne. Adrian’s Junior Legion team was scheduled to continue in the double-elimination tourney with a game against Tracy at 5 p.m. Tuesday (July 23).
HL-O claims impressive 11-2 win over Springfield
Heron Lake-Okabena is one of four surviving teams in the Sub-State Senior Legion Tournament, following a pair of impressive wins in last week. HL-O edged Minneota (3-2) on a bases-loaded walk-off walk Thursday. The next day, in Friday’s extreme heat, HL-O thumped Springfield (11-2) in impressive fashion as Eli Becker pitched a marvelous game, Tyson Dirks made a pair of spectacular plays at third base and Matt Madsen drove in five runs, including a bases-clearing three-run double which triggered HL-O’s offense in the bottom of the third inning.
The victory over Springfield was the team’s fifth straight playoff win and their ninth triumph in the last 10 games, improving the overall record to 12-5.
The string was snapped Saturday night — under the lights at Redbird Field — when Luverne posted a 13-0 victory over HL-O, sending the locals to the elimination bracket, joining Blue Earth and Springfield as teams with just one loss. Dirks made another great catch on a line drive at third and first baseman Jacob Burdick may have made the play of the tournament with a dandy stop of hard-hit smash which appeared to be a sure Luverne hit.
Springfield and Blue Earth play Friday (July 26) at 2:30 in Luverne. HL-O plays the winner at 5 p.m. The winner of that game tangles with Luverne at noon on Saturday — with a chance to beat them twice for a state-tournament berth.
Smith twirls perfect game for Fulda
Fulda’s Dillon Smith, who will be a seventh-grader this fall, pitched a perfect game in the Four-Star League’s Big Mites Tournament at the well-shaded Okabena City Park last Wednesday (July 17) striking out all 15 batters he faced in his team’s 8-0 championship victory over a good-hitting Lakefield squad.
“He was perfect, striking out every batter he faced in five innings,” declared Payton Marquardt, one of Fulda’s coaches. “I think maybe two guys each fouled off one pitch.”
Fulda also won the Little Mites Tournament and Lakefield claimed the championship of Midgets Tournament. Heron Lake was runner-up in both Little Mites and Midgets action. One of the most exciting games of the three-day tourney was Heron Lake’s 14-13 win over Okabena in the Little Mites opener on Tuesday morning — before the first rain halted the action.
While the Twins may be slumping a bit, they are still providing plenty of excitement as evidenced by Friday night’s 6-3 win and Sunday’s 7-6 walk-off victory — both come-from-behind triumphs over a very good Oakland team. Ehire Adrianza delivered a game-tying triple (driving in Luis Arraez who ripped a single) and scored the game-winner on Max Kepler’s RBI single.
Without question, the Twins have lots of players who continue contributing and this week’s three-game series at home against the Yankees could be full of more excitement. The Cleveland Indians are in hot pursuit as the American League Central Division is now clearly a two-team race, currently separated by a mere three games.
