Wanamingo Season Ends with Loss to Lake City

The Lake City Serpents defeated the Wanamingo Jacks 5-3 today in Cannon Falls.  Pitcher Ryan Wolfe was able to shut down a very good hitting Jacks team allowing just 2 hits in 8 innings of work.  With the win they advanced to the State Tournament berth game out of the elimination bracket of Region 5C.

Wolfe finished with 92 pitches, 65 for strikes, with 8 strikeouts, 2 walks and a hit batter.  He hit the outside corner repeatedly throughout the game with a hard slider that ran away from the hitters.

Gavin Roosen started for Wanamingo on the mound leaving the game after 5 innings.  He gave up two runs on 5 hits, struck out 3 and walked one batter.  Sam Roosen pitched the next two innings allowing 3 runs on 4 hits back to back with 1 strikeout and no walks.

Brady Anfinson finished the game for the Jacks with two innings pitched, 2 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 hit.  Anfinson threw 28 pitches, 15 strikes.  Gavin tallied 69 pitches, 48 strikes.  Sam had 46 pitches, 29 strikes.

Lake CIty took a 2-0 lead following a 2 run no doubt home run struck by catcher Jacob Fletcher in the 4th inning.  Austin Baab connected for a double in front of Fletcher.  Jacks catcher Jake Glarner set up on the outside corner of the plate.  Gavin Roosen missed the target with his pitch ending up over the plate and right in Fletcher's wheelhouse.

The Serpents added 3 runs with 4 successive hits off Sam Roosen in the 7th inning.  After the first two batters of the inning were retired number 9 hitter in the Lake City order Josh Fletcher had a single to right center on a 2-2 count.

The next batter, Ben Edelbach stroked a single to left on a 2-1 count.  Logan Thomas smacked a 2-2 pitch for a RBI single.  Matt Miller hammered a full count pitch for a 2 RBI single.

Wolfe came out of the game after allowing an infield single to Aaron Bauer to load the bases with two outs in the second inning.  He also gave up a double to start the 4th inning by Alex Roosen but stranded him at second base.

Jacob Duden pitched in relief of Wolfe in the bottom of the 9th.  Brady Anfinson was walked to start  the inning.  Following a pop out to second base Alex Roosen fouled off a couple of pitches and stroked a 2-2 count single.

Eric Swiggum tattooed the first pitch he saw from Duden over the fence in right center to make the score 5-3.  It was Swiggum's 4th home run in the last 3 games.  All opposite field.

Lake City brought in Kyle Sursely to finish the game with strikeouts of Andrew Anfinson and Dylan Craig.  Both were swinging.  Duden threw 19 pitches, 10 strikes to 4 batters with a walk and two hits.

Sursely had 10 throws, 8 strikes, two strikeouts of two batters faced.

Red Wing defeated Austin 4-0 in the next game and then edged Lake City to take the #3 seed out of Region 5C to the State Amateur Baseball Tournament starting next weekend.

Tomorrow the top seed out of the Region and #2 seed will be determined in a game I will have on KDHL Radio, 920 AM and the KDHL app.

Cannon Falls and Rochester will resume the game they started Friday night called due to a storm that rolled through Cannon Falls.  We will start in the bottom of the 4th inning with the scored tied at 1.

The winner will be Region 5C Champion and receive a bye opening weekend of the State Tournament.  The loser will be the #2 seed and open play next weekend at either Springfield (population 2,004) or Milroy (population 237).

It was fun to call my first game since mid-March when the Minnesota State Girls Basketball Tournament was called off after the first cases of COVID-19 were discovered.  The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers had just got on their bus to go to Williams Arena in Minneapolis when they were told the tournament was called off.

They were hoping to upend defending Class 1A Champion Minneota in a semifinal game.  The Vikings had defeated the Buccaneers in November in the State Volleyball Championship match at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Then KDHL's 72nd year of baseline to baseline coverage of the Minnesota State Boys Basketball Tournament was canceled along with the entire spring sports seasons because schools went into distance learning mode.

The Minnesota Amateur Baseball season got a very late start too despite efforts to start sooner.  The Minnesota Baseball Association (MBA) wrote at least three letters to the Governor with no response so they actually began playing without the Governor's blessing.  There have been a few players tested positive for COVID-19 since starting in July but no major outbreaks among teams.

Maybe more interesting is the fact there have been no major outbreaks among fans.

New Ulm had been scheduled to be the main host of this year's Class C State Amateur Baseball Tournament.  After their city council approved hosting even when the pandemic hit Minnesota they voted  in early July to pull out due to liability concerns and a recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Brown County and New Ulm.

Springfield is also in Brown County.  Milroy is in Redwood County.

Class B is being played in Shakopee.