WILLMAR -- The Ridgewater Warriors baseball team has little room for error while Dakota County Technical College of Rosemount is in the driver's seat heading into the second day of the Region 13 junior college baseball tournament.
The Blue Knights surprised the No. 2-nationally-rated Warriors 5-1 in the first round before crushing Northland in the winner's bracket 15-1 on Friday.
Ridgewater came back to knock Milwaukee Tech out of the four-team field 12-2 but the damage was done.
Ridgewater now must go 3-0 this weekend to return to the NJCAA Division III World Series a fourth-year in a row.
The day's highlight for the host team was easily an astonishing hitting display by third baseman Matt Bauer, a sophomore who is headed to Southwest Minnesota State next year, who hit three consecutive home runs at the Spicer field.
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Dakota County's Andy Fitzgerald, perhaps the MCCC's top pitcher, handcuffed the Warriors on five hits in the first game.
Nick Locnikar, who had two wins this season over Dakota County, held the Knights hitless through four innings.
The Rosemount team went 3-1 at last week's state tournament to finish third. They need only to win one game this weekend to advance to the World Series.
"We're disappointed, but not discouraged," said Warriors' coach Dwight Kotila. "You have to give (Fitzgerald) lots of credit. We had our chances early, but he just got stronger."
Ridgewater (30-5-1) and Northland play at 11 a.m. at Taunton Stadium, the same match-up as last Monday's state final, won by the Warriors 6-0.
Dakota County 5, Ridgewater 1
(At Willmar) -- The Warriors got the game's first run on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Brooks in the second. It plated Tyler Steen, who had reached on a throwing error and then whirled to third on a perfectly executed hit-and-run by Michael Riewer.
The Warriors had only two more hits the rest of the way, both in the sixth.
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Locnikar pitched hitless ball into the fifth when the Knights got two infield hits, followed by a sharp single off the bat of Adam Stuessel to drive in both runners.
Dakota leadoff hitter Chase Brown iced it with a three-run homer in the seventh off reliever Kyle Peterschick.
Fitzgerald, a freshman out of St. Paul Johnson, finished with a five-hitter and seven strikeouts, none bigger than Bauer with two aboard in the fifth and Keaton Gustin, also with two aboard, in the seventh.
Ridgewater 010 000 000 -- 1 5 0
Dakota County 000 020 30x -- 5 10 3
HITTING - Ridgewater: Brad Olson 1-for-3, sb; Michael Riewer 2-for-4, Scott Greening 2-for-4, 2b ... Dakota County: Chase Brown 1-for-4, 3-run HR, 3 rbi; Adam Stuessel 2-for-4, 2 rbi; Will Dahlgren 1-for-3, Evan Lucius 1-for-3, Spencer Bruan 1-for-4, Billy Cook 1-for-2, Jay Stensgard 1-for-1, 2b; Ryan Valdez 2-for-4, 2 runs
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) -- Ridgewater: Nick Locnikar (L) 6-5-3-3-1-2, Kyle Peterschick Zc-4-2-2-0-1, Ryan Rodeck 1Xc-1-0-0-1-2 ... Dakota County: Andy Fitzgerald (W) 9-5-1-0-4-7
Loser's bracket
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Ridgewater College 12, Milwaukee Tech 2
(At Spicer) -- Bauer clubbed seven homers his freshman year at Willmar but none this year, although he was hitting .500.
He was 0-for-3 with an intentional walk in the early game, then took out his frustrations out on Stormer starter Alex Zarek.
The homers in the first, second and fourth were each over the right-center fence with Brad Olson, the No. 2 batter in the lineup, aboard each time.
Tyler Steen, the No. 5 hitter, hit three doubles.
Chad Willenbring cruised through five innings for the win.
Milwaukee Tech...000 011 0 -- 2 7 1
Ridgewater .320 700 x -- 12 13 0
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HITTING - Milwaukee Tech: Brandon Hintz 1-for-3, solo HR, rbi; Trevor Nadeau 1-for-3, Kevin Doerr 1-for-3, 2b; Eric Belter 1-for-3, 2b; Dan Born 1-for-3, Josh Bouche 1-for-3 .... Ridgewater: Brad Olson 3-for-4, 2b, 2 runs, rbi; Matt Bauer 3-for-4, 3 runs, 3 2-run HR, 6 rbi; Nate Alfson 1-for-3, Tyler Steen 3-for-4, 3 2b's; Michael Riewer 1-for-4, rbi; Jeff Haag 1-for-4, 2b, 2 rbi
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) -- Milwaukee Tech: Alex Zarek (L) 3Xc-9-9-8-1-0, Sean Carolan 3Zc-4-3-3-2-1 ... Ridgewater: Chad Willenbring (W) 5-3-1-1-0-3, Ryan Rodeck 2-4-1-1-0-2
