The Faribault Lakers season came to an end Thursday night in New Prague 8-4 in the loser's bracket of the Region 3C Tournament.  The Orioles punched their ticket to state.

New Prague goes to Prior Lake to play 2:00 p.m. Saturday to determined the #3 and #4 seeds from Region 3C at state.  Union Hill is at St. Patrick Sunday at 1:00 p.m. for the championship of the region.  The winner receives a bye opening weekend and the loser is the #2 seed from the region.

Jack Helgeson started the game on the mound for Faribault.  He battled some injuries this season pitching in 4 games with 10 2/3 innings of work.

In the first inning back to back one out walks came back to bite the Lakers when Gavin Bergmann hit a 2 run double to give New Prague a lead they would never relinquish.

Meanwhile Orioles starting pitcher Bryce Novak struck out 4 of the first 7 batters he faced allowing one hit over the first two innings.

In the top of the 3rd inning, Jack Helgeson led off with a single .  He was bunted to third by Jack Jandro before scoring on a double play to cut the Orioles lead to 2-1.

In the bottom of the third inning after a ground out by the #2 batter.  Novak doubled on a 3-0 count pitch, James Fuerness was hit by a pitch with the count 1-1.  Gavin Bergman crushed a 1-1 count pitch over the fence for a 3 run home run to make the score 5-1.

Helgeson was replaced by Joey Grote who went the rest of the way for the Lakers on the mound.

Helgeson went 2 1/3 innings, allowed 3 hits, 5 runs, all earned, while throwing 51 pitches, 28 strikes.  He struck out 1 batter, walked 2 and hit a batter.

Faribault got a lead off double by Nate Rost in the 4th inning.   Matt  Lane was on the bases thanks to an error.  Nick Rost hit into a double play with Nate scoring on the play.

In the bottom of the 5th inning Novak had a one out single, Fuerness clubbed a RBI double to make the score 6-2.

In the top of the 6th inning Joey Grote led off with a 0-2 count double.  He advanced to third base on a ground out and scored on a ground out off the bat of Matt Lane.

The Orioles scored two runs after two outs were recorded in the 7th inning.  Fuerness singled, Bergman was safe by a fielder's choice when the Lakers tried to get Fuerness out at second and the throw went into right field allowing him to score and Bergman to move up a base.  Nathan Osbourne smacked a RBI single to score the 8th run.

Novak ended his night on the mound after walking the first batter he faced in the 7th inning.  He went 6 plus innings, threew 106 pitches, 75 strikes, with 8 strikeouts, 2 walks, 3 runs allowed.  T.J. Bergland entered the game to pitch.

Nick Rost was hit by a pitch with one out in the 8th inning.  With two outs Jack Helgeson collected his third hit of the day.  Mitch Johnson hit a ground ball to second that was booted allowing Rost to score.

The top of the 9th Bergland recorded his third and fourth strikeouts to retire Faribault in order punching the Orioles ticket to the State Amateur Baseball Tournament in Chaska, Waconia and Hamburg.

Faribault ended their season with a 20-14 record.

In the other Loser's Bracket game St. Benedict advanced to state with a 7-6 win over Prior Lake.  The Saints were the #8 seed in Region 3C and go to #5 seed New Prague Saturday at 2:00 p.m. to determined the #3 and #4 seeds to state from the region.

Union Hill is at St. Patrick 1:00 p.m. Sunday for the Region 3C Championship.  The winner receives a bye the first weekend of state and the loser goes to state as the #2 seed out of the region.

Next year Faribault hosts the State Amateur Baseball Tournament with Dundas and Miesville.

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