Prior Lake, Montgomery, Shakopee and St. Benedict get state berths

A strange postseason saw three of the top four teams in the Dakota-Rice-Scott Baseball League eliminated in the Region 3C playoffs, two of them by losing their first two games in the double-elimination tournament.

New Market, St. Patrick and Faribault were among the teams that received byes into the region playoffs, along with Prior Lake. Of those three, only the Mudcats survived, having won their first three playoff games.

St. Patrick and Faribault lost both of their games while New Market dropped two of three.

St. Benedict will be the No. 4 seed from the region at the state tournament, which begins Friday, Aug. 19 in Hutchinson and Dassel. Montgomery and Shakopee were scheduled to play Wednesday, Aug. 10, with the loser becoming the No. 3 seed. Wednesday’s winner will travel to Prior Lake on Friday, Aug. 12, with the No. 1 seed on the line. If Prior Lake wins Friday’s game, they are the No. 1 seed. If they lose, the two teams will play again at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14, at Prior Lake, to determine the top seed.

Last week’s results

Wednesday, Aug. 3 Mudcats 3, Bulldogs 2 Prior Lake defeated Union Hill 3-2 in 11 innings to claim a spot in the State Class C Tournament in a winner’s bracket game played at Prior Lake Wednesday, Aug. 3. Prior Lake took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning, but the Bulldogs tied it in the eighth and took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 11th inning. However the Mudcats scored twice in the bottom of the 11th to take the win. Bryan Lindner went 4-for- 5 with a double and an RBI for Union Hill. Dan Feneis started for the Bulldogs and went six innings, with Dave Anderson and Lindner pitching in relief. Nathan Berg took the loss. Prior Lake had just six hits, but made them count. Cole Bjorge had two RBIs. Topher Rose went 10 innings allowing just five hits and one run. Justin Hackett got the win in relief.

Coyotes 8, Irish 3 Shakopee defeated St. Patrick 8-3 in a loser’s bracket game in Shakopee, eliminating the Irish from the tournament. Seth Ambroz got the Coyotes started on the right track with a two-run homer in the first inning, but Shakopee tied it in the bottom of the inning. St. Patrick scored in the second on a bases-loaded walk, but after that had no offense. Shakopee took a 6-3 lead in the sixth on RBI singles by Alex Johnson and Andy Lazzari.

Saints 4, Lakers 3 St. Benedict Saints kept eliminated Faribault 4-3 Wednesday in New Prague. Faribault struck first as Ryan Archambault homered to give the Lakers an early 2-0 lead. The Saints came back in the middle innings as eight of nine batters had hits as the team scored twice in each the fourth and fifth innings. Faribault cut the lead to one on a Matt Lane groundout in the sixth but could not push ahead the tying run. St. Benedict outhit the Lakers 11-3. Mitchell Martin, Tanner Oakes, Andrew Huss, and Josh Malz had two hits each. Michael Pauly pitched the complete game, giving up just one earned run. Joey Grote and Blake Langerud had the other Faribault hits. 

Friday, Aug. 5 Saints 7, Bulldogs 5 St. Benedict clinched their third state tournament berth in four years with a 7-5 win over Union Hill Friday. Union Hill led 4-1 after one inning using three hits and four walks. Jesse Bastyr delivered a two-run single in the frame. The Saints responded with a five-run third inning via four hits, two walks, and two errors. Adam Gill singled in Bryan Lindner in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 6-5. The Saints added an insurance run in the eighth as Johnny Dittman, Cullen Bahn, and Michael Pauly singled consecutively. Jeremy Heitkamp earned the win in relief, giving up two runs on seven hits. Bahn had four hits. Mitchell Martin, Tanner Oakes, and Pauly had two hits each for the Saints. Bastyr and Matt Beckius had multi-hit games for the Bulldogs.

Coyotes 4, Muskies 3 Shakopee’s Cody Pamperin took a 4-1 lead into the ninth inning, and New Market’s comeback fell one run short as the Coyotes eliminated the No. 1 seed Muskies 4-3, gaining a state tournament berth in the process. Pamperin got the complete game win, allowing seven hits and three runs while striking out six. He left the bases full of Muskies in the final inning. Kyle Bergstrom put the Muskies on top in the second with a solo home run. But Shakopee responded with four runs in the fifth. Scott Bode hit a solo home run in the inning for the Coyotes. Matt Theis, Bode and Tyler Sloss all had two hits for Shakopee. Nate Rost took the loss. He allowed eight hits and four runs, only one earned, while striking out eight.

Sunday, Aug. 7 Mudcats 6, Mallards 1 Prior Lake grabbed an early lead and held Montgomery at bay in a 6-1 win over the Mallards in Montgomery in a winner’s bracket game. Ben Morrison got the win, allowing three hits in eight innings. Jake Schmidt got the final three outs in the ninth. Jake Lehrer had the big bat for Prior Lake, with two hits and three RBI. Montgomery had just three hits, from Tom Flicek, Mike Flicek and Trevor Smisek. Mike Flicek drove in Tom Flicek with the Mallards only run in the third inning. Johnny Krocak pitched seven innings and allowed six hits while striking out five. Jaron Christensen pitched the final two innings.

Coyotes 8, Saints 5 Shakopee defeated St. Benedict 8-5 in a seeding game Sunday at St. Benedict. The Coyotes had 16 hits. Ryan Rentz and Alex Johnson had three hits each. Both teams used multiple pitchers. Shakopee used four, while St. Benedict used seven pitchers to get through the contest. The Saints had eleven hits, led by Wade Olsen with four. St. Benedict was eliminated from the tournament with the loss and will represent the DRS/Region 3C as the region’s No. 4 seed in the state tournament. St. Benedict will play Sunday, Aug. 21, at 2:30 p.m. The site will be announced once all pairings are completed.

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