Orioles pound out 18 hits, return to state
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NEW ULM -- The Leavenworth Orioles pounded out 18 hits and right-hander Mark Anderson struck out 11 in six innings as Leavenworth earned a berth in the Class C Amateur Baseball State Tournament with a 15-4 win over the Springfield Tigers Friday night at Johnson Park.
The Region 2C state-qualifying elimination game was stopped after eight innings because of the 10-run lead rule.
Anderson allowed three hits and walked five.
Adiel Trevino was saddled with the season-ending loss for the Tigers. He went 2 1/3 innings and was charged with four runs.
Jevan Richert led the 18-hit attack with four doubles. Jackson Huiras added three hits, with Austin Uecker, Dylan Hillesheim, Jaden Mickelson and Caden Evers all with two hits. One of Uecker's hits was a three-run home run in the eighth.
Decker Scheffler and Brandon Wilhelmi each had two hits for the Tigers.
This was the Orioles' third straight win over Springfield this season.
"We came out sticking tonight," Leavenworth manager Zach Mickelson said. "That is a hell of a ballclub over there. But Mark gamed up and Dylan came in to close the game. But when you put up 18 hits and score 15 runs -- we played very good baseball tonight."
The Orioles took advantage of some free bases early in the game to take a lead.
In the second inning, three walks from Trevino and a Jackson Ludewig sacrifice fly made it 1-0.
A leadoff walk to Hillesheim in the second, a stolen base and a Jackson Huiras base hit upped the lead to 2-0.
Richert's first double of the game had Leavenworth up 3-0 before an RBI single by Evers off of reliever Noah Neperman increased the lead to 4-0 after three innings.
The Orioles maintained that 4-0 lead until the top of the sixth inning when Leavenworth plated four runs. A walk, an error and a two-run single from Hillesheim made it 6-0. Richert's second double of the game made it 7-0 and a Jaden Mickelson RBI single had the Orioles rolling 8-0.
But the Tigers cut into that lead with four runs in the bottom of the seventh, with two scoring on a Tyler Hach single and two more coming in on a Ryan Sturm base hit.
But any momentum that Springfield had was lost in the top of the eighth when the Orioles sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on eight hits.
"We gave up those four runs in the seventh and we came right back," Mickelson said. "I told the team to answer back and that was what we did."
Richert's third double of the game made it 11-4 before Austin Uecker tomahawked a three-run home run over the fence in left for a 14-4 lead .
Rickert's second at-bat of the inning resulted in his fourth double of the game and a 15-4 lead.
Mickelson said that his team is playing their best baseball heading into the state tournament for their second straight year.
"We are playing our best baseball now," he said. "We got started late because we were waiting for some legion players to come back -- we had some injuries, but right now we are playing good baseball."