REGAL - The Regal Eagles winged by the New London-Spicer Twins 4-1 on Sunday afternoon at The Ballpark in Regal.
The outcome of what was the season and County Line League opener seemed secondary to sunshine. Although there had been a couple of bright days in April surrounded by cold and rain and sometimes snow, this seemed more like the “First Day of Spring.”
Regal fans sat on the grass, lightly-dressed children played and the ballplayers did their thing without interference of wind or rain on a 55-degree day.
The ballfield appeared in terrific shape for so early. The big scoreboard in left-center, knocked digitally senseless last summer by a prairie nor’wester, will be replaced soon.
For the record, Shane Radermacher and Chris Beier combined on a five-hitter in the Eagles’ 4-1 victory. Beier was especially tough allowing just a single over four innings for the save.
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RBI hits were provided by the home team’s Nathan Beier, Chris Beier and Andy “Goose” Hadley, the later a monster two-bagger to the fence in dead-center field in the Eagles’ two-run seventh.
Dean Stier, who had singled and advanced on a pair of walks to third base, scored on a passed ball in the fifth for the Twins’ lone run. NLS stranded two runners that inning and two in the ninth.
Nathanial Swoyer pitched seven innings for the Twins, allowing six hits, a walk and striking out one Eagles. One of the four runs was unearned.
Kulset, Scott Rambow, Mike Danielson and Jack Schaegel also singled for the visitors, who will host Regal on June 8. Player/manager Jamie Scheevel should have a larger roster by then; he was alone on the Twins’ bench Sunday with Regal at bat.
These two teams last met July 28 in the County Line playoffs with Regal winning a seed-in game 2-1 in 11 innings, as both teams advanced to Region 15C at Farming. This year the region playdown will be at Melrose, and, same as last year, two County Line teams will advance to region and six from the Stearns County League, which includes a North and South Division.
Regal Eagles 4, New London-Spicer Twins 1
NL-Spicer (0-1) 000 010 000 - 1 5 3
Regal (1-0) 100 100 20x - 4 7 2
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HITTING – NLS Twins: Ben Kulset 1-for-2, Dean Stier 1-for-5, run; Scott Rambow 1-for-3, Mike Danielson 1-for-4, Jake Damhof 0-for-1, 3 bbs; Jack Schwaegerl 1-for-4 … Regal: Austin Hadley 0-for-3, rbi; Chris Beier 2-for-4, rbi; Nathan Beier 1-for-3, Austin Kampsen 1-for-3, rbi; Andy “Goose” Hadley 1-for-3, rbi, 2b; Blake Karsch 1-for-1, 2b; Cody Flanders 1-for-1, Tyler Keeman 0-for-0, sac
PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) - NLS Twins: Nathanial Swoyer (L) 7-64-3-1-1, Ben Kulset 1-1-0-0-0-1 … Regal: Shane Radermacher (W) 5-4-1-0-4-2, C. Beier (S) 4-1-0-0-0-3
