Weekend wallops.
Compensatory Clash
Game 3
Select League
(1) Rochester Locks 5
(5) Lakeville Noses 4
Locks lead 2-1
In this round’s played game, the Noses kept it close throughout but were unable to break Rochester’s lead, falling behind to the top seed in a 5-4 battle. Lakeville brought the deficit to one run three times but never tied the game.
The key inning this game was the fifth. After Lakeville made the game 2-1 in the fourth on a Corey Koskie RBI single, Rochester put up a pair half a frame later, Eddie Rosario tripling in Justin Morneau and scoring on John Castino’s groundout. But Denny Hocking smacked a two-run homer for Lakeville in the bottom of the inning to match the Locks’ tally.
While each team added one more run, the Noses left two men on in the seventh and never put another on base.
(2) Bloomington Berries 10
(3) Kenosha Sticks 6
12 innings
Berries win series 3-0
While Bloomington jumped out to an early lead, Kenosha kept knotting the score; only in the third additional frame did the Berries knock out the Sticks’ hopes and tournament chances with a 10-6 win.
After a four-run, two-homer first (Marty Cordova, leading off, and LaMonte Wade Jr.), Kenosha’s bats stayed mum until putting up a pair in the fifth and seventh, knocking Berries starter Brad Radke from the game. Bloomington put up another run in the eighth which the Sticks matched in the ninth on a two-out double-and-error combination, forcing extras.
Each team scored in the eleventh, but in the top of the twelfth, two of the first three Bloomington men reached and Kenosha brought Pat Light into the game. Cordova topped a grounder which third baseman Craig Paquette misplayed, scoring the go-ahead man, and Jeff Reboulet followed with a three-run blast to put the final runs on the board. Saul Rivera put the Sticks down quietly in the bottom of the inning to send the Berries to the next round.
Choice League
(1) Minneapolis Winners 6
(7) Plymouth Holes 1
Winners win series 3-0
Nothing much to talk about this game, as the entire series belonged to Minneapolis, and this game was no different. The Winners put up three in the second and never let the Holes into the game or the set.
Joe Mauer got the second-inning scoring started with a solo home run, and Ben Revere and Steve Brye added RBI singles. Brye’s home run in the fourth made it 4-0, a score which Minneapolis added to in the seventh and ninth.
Plymouth’s only run came on a fourth-inning Chris Parmelee single as the trio of Mark Redman, Willie Banks, and Travis Miller made for an easy advancement to the First-Round Third Round.
(3) Racine Pieces 8
(5) St. Paul Battles 5
Pieces win series 3-0
While St. Paul put up a five-spot in the first, the Pieces roared ahead early and kept rolling to claim their spot in the semifinals 8-5.
Home runs by Butch Wynegar and Brent Rooker led the Battles’ early outburst, but Aaron Sele settled down and allowed only two more hits in the next six innings. Meanwhile, Racine scored three in the second (consecutive RBI extra-base hits, Travis Metcalf’s triple and Chuck Scrivener’s double, were the keys) before breaking the game open in the fourth. Patrick Bailey led off with a single before Metcalf sent an 0-1 offering over the wall, tying the score and chasing St. Paul starter Frank Viola. Anthony Swarzak entered and got a quick flyout, but he followed that by walking the bases loaded. George Springer swung the scoreboard permanently to Racine with a single to center, a throwing error bringing in another run.
Metcalf ended the scoring with an RBI single in the fifth, while Sele and T.J. Mathews finished off the Battles from the rubber.
With three games complete, I have to change up the poll(s) a little as there’s only one game to select: