Town Ball Tour Draws Large Crowd to Faribault

There were no parking spaces to be found anywhere on the grounds of North Alexander Park in Faribault Wednesday night.  Opening night of the Rice County Fair brought scores of people.

KMSP Channel 9 Town Ball Tour packed the stands at Bell Field.  They brought some freebies for the kids.  A bean bag toss activity.  It seems a lot of people hope to be on television.

They made stops around town during their morning local programming bringing some publicity to a community not far from the heart of the Twin Cities.

The Faribault Lakers played the Rochester Royals.  Faribault won 12-2 in 8 innings.

Rochester is a Class B team.  The Royals have been a traditional powerhouse.

The Lakers are a Class C team with 4 trips to the State Amateur Tournament over the last 6 seasons.

Next year Faribault hosts the State Amateur Baseball Tournament.

Bell Field has had a number of upgrades, with more planned before thousands of people descend on the community.

The Channel 9 crew left after a few innings were completed.

The Lakers scored 3 runs in the first inning and never looked back.  Porter Sartor went the distance on the mound with 9 atrikeouts, 2 walks, 8 hits allowed, 1 earned run.  He threw 139 pitches, 86 strikes.

Blake Langerud lead hitter for Faribault started the game by beating out an infield hit.  He would finish the game with 3 hits.  Danny Pierce had 2 hits, 2 RBI, Joey Grote had 2 hits including a double, Nick Rost had 2 hits, 2 RBI.

Derek Lilledahl pitched the first two innings for Rochester.  The Dodge Center native will be a sophomore this fall at Minnesota State Mankato.  He is working on having a sidearm delivery of the ball.  Lilledahl threw 38 pitches, 23 strikes with 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 4 hits, 3 earned runs.

The Royals would have two more pitchers throw in the loss giving up 13 hits, 7 walks, 11 strikeouts, 12 earned runs.

The Lakers play Saturday at St. Benedict with a 12:05 p.m. first pitch.  Following that game just three more regular season contests are on the schedule.

Games Friday, July 30, 2021 at Dundas and Sunday, August 1, 2021 at home against Lonsdale are scheduled to be broadcast on KDHL, 920 AM, 97.9 FM, KDHL app.

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