Magers stifles Stark bats, Blue Earth advances in state tournament
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DELANO -- When St. Clair draftee Louis Magers took the mound in relief for the Blue Earth Pirates on Sunday, the tide turned at Delano Municipal Baseball Park.
Magers stranded two Stark Longhorns in the fourth with back-to-back strikeouts and the Pirates scored six unanswered after that for a 7-2 comeback win in a first-round Class C Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament game.
The win moves Blue Earth on to a 1:30 p.m. state game with Bird Island this Sunday in Dassel.
Magers, a 6-5 right-hander for the Minnesota State Mavericks and St. Clair Wood Ducks, retired 10 Stark batters in a row after entering in relief of starter Derek Dahlke, a Belle Plaine draftee. Magers finished the game with eight strikeouts, allowing three walks and no hits in 5 2/3 innings.
He was also named the game's MVP.
"I've seen Magers pitch in high school and stuff and he's a college pitcher at MSU, so he's going to be good," Longhorns manager Dusty Mangen said. "So facing a guy like that with the velocity he had, I was happy with most of the at-bats that we were putting together. We did a few balls hard, but they were right at them.
"And a guy like that's going to minimize your opportunities regardless, just because he can strike you out. I thought if we could wear him out a little bit, we could have a chance, but we never really got to a point where we got anything going."
Dahlke exited in the fourth with 3 1/3 innings of work, allowing six hits and two walks for two runs while striking out two.
Stark lefty Adam Sellner took the loss in five innings, allowing seven hits and a walk for four runs while striking out four.
Brandyn Olsen was 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored for Blue Earth, while Lee Hodges was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and Cody Sukalski was 2 for 5 with an RBI and a run scored. Logan O'Hara had a two-run homer in the sixth for the Pirates.
NIck Labat led Stark at the plate, going 2 for 4 with an RBI.
After Blue Earth grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double from Olsen, the Longhorns took the lead in the third. A two-out double down the line in left by Mason Cox led to Zach Haala driving home Cox with a single to left, tying the game at 1-all.
After Haala stole second, Labat singled home Haala for a 2-1 Stark lead. Blue Earth tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double by Tanner Nawrocki.
Sellner was then moved to third in place of Haala in the sixth after giving up a single and a double to start the bottom of the inning. A wild pitch by Haala allowed Blue Earth to take a 3-2 lead before a two-run homer to left-center by O'Hara made it 5-2.
A pair of throwing errors in the bottom of the seventh kept the inning alive and ended up giving the Pirates a 6-2 lead heading into the eighth. An RBI double into left-center by Sukalski made it 7-2 after eight.
David Surprenant walked to lead off the ninth and Sean Mathiowetz reached with a one-out error, but a strikeout and groundout ended Stark's season moments later.
Mathiowetz and Dylan Klein each added a single for Stark.
Haala pitched three innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits and no walks. He struck out two.
Stark committed four errors in the game, while Blue Earth had two.
"I thought for the most part, pitchers threw well," Mangen said. "Our defense gave them way too many extra opportunities and they pretty much made us pay for pretty much every mistake that we made. … We made too many mistakes and that's impossible to overcome when you're facing good teams and good pitchers like you're facing here."
Despite not being able to represent Region 2C next weekend with New Ulm and Courtland, the Longhorns were still able to punch their ticket to the state tournament for the third year in a row.
"Anytime you make it to the state tournament, in my eyes, the season's a success," Mangen said. "I tell the young guys on the team -- all they've known is success and state tournaments. That window's not going to be open forever, and it's taking advantage of when you have good teams to perform well and give yourself a chance at the state tournament, because there, anything can happen.
"We proved that last year, we won two games against two really good teams. This year, it wasn't our day today, but if we keep the same guys back, we should have another opportunity next year."