Legion Baseball: NLS falls short in Region 2 title game
SPICER -- New London-Spicer won two games Saturday in the loser's bracket to advance to the championship round, but its quest to reach the District Final Four was cut off by No. 4 seed Eden Valley-Watkins Sunday as EVW outslugged NLS 16-11 in the Region 2 final.
No. 3 NLS upended No. 1 Osakis 6-4 before crushing No. 2 Kerkhoven 18-1 in the loser's bracket final.
Statistics from NLS were not available at press time.
Championship
EV-Watkins 16, NLS 11
No further game details were available.
Saturday's Games
Winner's Bracket Final
EVW 14, Kerkhoven 3
Eden Valley-Watkins grabbed a 10-3 lead after two innings of play en route to advancing to the championship game. EVW slugged out 18 hits with four players collecting three each.
Kerkhoven plated three runs in the bottom half of the first when Joe Buck singled in Kyle Baker, Aaren Glesne was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Buck scored on an error.
Glesne had two of the Cubs' four hits.
EV-Watkins 550 40 -- 14 18 2
Kerkhoven 300 00 -- 3 4 0
HITTING - Eden Valley-Watkins: Kevin Kramer 3-for-4, 2b, 3b; Alex Geislinger 3-for-4, 2 2b's, 3 runs; Hayden Wilner 3-for-3; John Bautch 3-for-4, 2b, 3 rbi ... Kerkhoven: Jonah Johnson 1-for-1; Joe Buck 1-for-3, rbi; Aaren Glesne 2-for-2, 2b, rbi
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) -- Eden Valley-Watkins: Wilner (W) 4-3-3-1-2-3, Geislinger 1-1-0-0-0-0 ... Kerkhoven: Jonah Johnson (L) 3-13-10-10-1-4, Sam Johnson 2-5-4-4-2-4
Loser's Bracket Final
NLS 18, Kerkhoven 1
New London-Spicer scored in every inning, including a pair of five-run frames.
Ryan Vraa, Tanner Tobkin and Grant Vagle had three hits each to ignite NLS. Vraa doubled twice and scored four times, Tobkin tripled, drove in two runs and scored twice, and Vagle doubled and had two RBI. Steven Ammerman scored three times behind two hits and Tanner Thunstedt singled and drew three walks to score four times.
Benefitting from the offensive explosion was Jordan Payne as the NLS starter worked all five innings, striking out 10 along the way to shake off issuing seven walks.
Kyle Baker scored on a wild pitch in the third for Kerkhoven's only run.
NLS 354 15 -- 18 14 1
Kerkhoven 001 00 -- 1 4 4
HITTING - New London-Spicer: Ryan Vraa 3-for-3, 2 2b's, 4 runs; Steven Ammerman 2-for-3, 2b, rbi, 3 runs; Nick Bergeson 1-for-2, 2 runs; Tanner Tobkin 3-for-4, 3b, 2 rbi; 2 runs; Grant Vagle 3-for-5, 2b, 2 rbi; Jordan Payne 1-for-4; Tanner Thunstedt 1-for-1, 3 bb's, 4 runs ... Kerkhoven: Jonah Johnson 1-for-1; Joe Buck 1-for-3; Jessie Engler 1-for-1; Sam Johnson 1-for-1
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) -- New London-Spicer: Payne (W) 5-4-1-1-7-10 ... Kerkhoven: Engler (L) 1.2-5-8-6-3-0, Isaac Froehlich 1.1-4-5-4-4-1, S. Johnson 2-5-5-4-2-3
Loser's Bracket
NLS 6, Osakis 4
No further game details were available.
