Paynesville staved off an upset bid by Benson on Tuesday, edging the Braves 4-3 in the first round of the Section 6AA baseball tournament in Paynesville, while New London-Spicer upset No. 2-seed Minnewaska 11-5.
Paynesville will face Sauk Centre at 5 p.m. today in Elrosa in the quarterfinals. New London-Spicer will play Melrose at 7 p.m.
Paynesville 4, Benson 3
Paynesville avoided the upset bug by getting home runs from Shane Kampsen and Keegan Meagher and a complete-game performance on the hill from Nathan Nietfeld.
Benson scored two unearned runs in the first to take an early lead, but Meagher tied the game in the bottom half of the frame with a two-run homer.
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Kampsen then launched a solo homer in the third before Benson tied the game at 3-3 on Kyle Pederson's RBI single. Kampsen then tripled to the gap in left-center with two out in the fifth to drive in Brett Savelkoul with the winning run.
Benson 200 100 0 -- 3 3 1
Paynesville 201 010 x -- 4 5 3
HITTING - Benson: Miles Staton 1-for-2, 2b; Brook Guest 1-for-3; Kyle Pederson 1-for-3, rbi ... Paynesville: Shane Kampsen 2-for-3, 3b, solo HR, 2 rbi; Keegan Meagher 1-for-1, 2-run HR, 2 rbi; Ted Hoffmann 1-for-2; Nathan Nietfeld 1-for-3
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) -- Benson: Andrew Simmonds (L) 6-5-4-4-4-7 ... Paynesville: Nathan Nietfeld (W) 7-3-3-0-2-9
NLS 11, Minnewaska 5
Six runs in the sixth inning propelled the Wildcats, the No. 7-seed, to an upset of No. 2 Minnewaska.
NLS got two 2-run doubles from Jacob Moritz and Kevin Soine, plus run-scoring singles from Ethan Illies and Darrin Palmquist.
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Taylor Dammermann slugged a solo home run in the top of the seventh to cap the NLS scoring.
Illies, who also had a two-run single in the second, gave up five runs -- only one earned -- on eight hits. He struck out three and walked three.
The Wildcats will face Melrose at 7 p.m. today at Elrosa in the second round.
NLS 021 016 1 -- 11 12 2
Minnewaska 110 003 0 -- 5 7 6
HITTING - New London-Spicer: Jacob Moritz 2-for-4, 2b, 2 rbi; Ethan Illies 2-for-3, 3 rbi; Kevin Soine 1-for-4, 2b, 2 rbi; Taylor Dammermann 2-for-4, solo HR, rbi; Darrin Palmquist 1-for-1, rbi; Luke Reiter 1-for-3; Luke Peterson 1-for-3 ... Minnewaska: Alex Henricks 2-for-3; Michael Whittemore 2-for-4, 2b, 2 rbi; Wyatt Paumen 1-for-2, rbi; Brad Dunn 1-for-2, rbi; Trevor Berg 1-for-1; Ira Ammend 1-for-4
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) -- New London-Spicer: Ethan Illies (W) 8-8-5-1-3-3 ... Minnewaska: Nick Sutton 5Zc-9-9-5-0-2, Danny Braaten 1Zc-3-2-1-0-2
