Bomber Baseball Clinches HVL Blue with Win Over Triton

The Cannon Falls Bombers clinched the Hiawatha Valley League Blue Division with a 3-0 win over the Triton Cobras in Dodge Center on Monday night on KDHL Radio.

Senior lefty Jared Anderson overcame early control issues to record the victory and junior Chase Reber notched a save while getting the final out with the tying run at the plate.

It was senior day in Dodge Center with the moms of the two seniors on the Triton team throwing out the ceremonial first pitches and receiving the balls they threw to their sons.

Senior Carson Johnson started on the mound for Triton and went the first inning. He threw 18 pitches, nine for strikes, gave up a hit and had a walk but didn't give up any runs.

Freshman Derek Lillidahl went the rest of the way for Triton and pitched well. The young man has a very good breaking ball and threw 77 pitches in his six innings of work. He struck out one and walked two while allowing eight hits.

The most impressive moment of his outing in my mind happened when he gave up a solo homer to start the sixth inning and kept throwing strikes and challenging the hitters. Senior Andrew Egge got the homer off the foul pole in left field.

Egge also was a factor in the two-run third inning for Cannon Falls. He tallied an RBI single with two outs to give the Bombers a 2-0 lead at the time.

That inning started with a walk by Hayden Strain, the lead-off hitter for Cannon Falls. The junior was on base every time to the plate, with a walk and three hits on the day, and scored the first run when Liam Franken followed his walk with a double on a ball scalded to left center that rolled all the way to the fence.

Triton had a golden opportunity to score in the bottom of the third when Anderson walked the first two batters of the inning and an error loaded the bases with nobody out. But a grounder to Egge at third ended in a force out at home and the inning concluded on a 4-6-3 double play.

Anderson allowed just two hits in the game and came out in the seventh inning with two outs after recording his sixth walk to bring the tying run to the plate. The senior threw 94 pitches, 50 for strikes, struck out five and walked six.

After giving up his fourth walk to start the third inning, Cannon Falls pitching coach Keith Meyers went out to the mound. After the visit, Anderson allowed just one more hit the rest of the way and only walked two more batters.

I recall saying Anderson looked like he wasn't comfortable with his landing spot on the mound and I must've been right because I asked Meyers after the game what he told him and he said, "don't worry about the mound. Just concentrate on throwing strikes."

Here were the line totals in my scorebook for the game:

Cannon Falls: 3 runs, 8 hits, 2 errors, 6 left on base, 3 in scoring position

Triton: 0 runs, 2 hits, 1 error, 9 left on base, 6 in scoring position

Triton is at Byron on Tuesday and their final conference game is Thursday at Goodhue. The Cobras close out the season with long trips to Jackson County Central on Friday and Winona Cotter on Monday.

Cannon Falls hosts Kenyon-Wanamingo on Thursday at John Burch Park and will be doing a fundraiser for a Sharing Hands organization a former Bomber is working with. They travel to Randolph for the annual Battle of Lake Byllesby game Saturday afternoon. KDHL Radio will be broadcasting both games.

During the Sharing Hands game, the Bombers will be wearing special red cameo hats with the Sharing Hands logo on the front and auctioning the hats off after the game. I'm going to bring a few KDHL hats to put in the mix also.