Heron Lake 000 000 011 = 2-6-1
Windom 000 010 03x = 4-5-0
Both offenses were held in check much of the night, but the Windom Pirates capitalized on a timely hit and a costly Heron Lake error to claim a 4-2 victory in First Nite League action Wednesday at Island Park.
Pirate pitcher Luke Gilbertson did not allow a baserunner until the fifth inning, then was able to dodge a couple of golden scoring chances for the Lakers to keep Heron Lake off the scoreboard through the first seven innings.
Meanwhile, Laker pitcher Eli Fest was equally sharp, largely dodging a couple of Windom scoring chances. The Pirates had a mistake on the base paths cost them a potential run in the second inning, before finally breaking the scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth. Kobe Lovell led off the inning with a pop-up that fell between three Laker players for a single. After a walk and a sacrifice bunt, Lovell scored on a wild pitch for the game’s first run.
Heron Lake tied the game in the top of the eighth on a sacrifice fly, but the Pirates took the lead for good in the bottom of the eighth. Noah Kloss was hit by a pitch and Luke Gilbertson drew a walk. With two outs, Conner Redman smashed an RBI double to the left-center gap, scoring Kloss with the go-ahead run. On the same play, the relay to try to throw Redman out at second sailed high and ran all the way to the fence past first base, allowing Gilbertson and Redman to both race home, giving Windom a 4-1 lead.
The Lakers scored a run in the top of the ninth and had the potential tying run at the plate, but a strikeout ended the game.
Lovell and Redman each had two hits in the win for Windom.
Gilbertson earned the complete-game victory, allowing two runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out four.
Jackson 111 314 14 = 16-16-0
Mt. Lake 201 000 00 = 3-9-0
Jackson blew things open in the middle innings Thursday night, scoring 13 unanswered runs to claim a 16-3 victory over the Mt. Lake Lakers in First Nite League action at St. James.
The Lakers took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning on back-to-back RBI singles from Peyton Engleking and Rhinley Kazuma.
Jackson tied the game in the second and took a 3-2 lead in the top of the third before Mt. Lake tied the game at 3-3 on a Levi Jahnke RBI single in the bottom of the third.
But it was all Bulls after that, as Jackson scored three times in the fourth inning to take the lead for good. Jackson scored in every inning, including four-run innings in the sixth and eighth to put the game away.
Jahnke had three hits to lead the Lakers.
Kazuma took the pitching loss, allowing five runs on nine hits in three innings. He struck out two.
Lakers 4, A’s 2
The Mt. Lake Lakers came from behind to pick up a 4-2 victory over Pipestone Tuesday night at St. James.
Pipestone scored single runs in the first and third innings before Mt. Lake’s offense came to life in the fifth. The Lakers scored on back-to-back RBI singles from Conner Jones and Peyton Engleking.
With the score tied in the bottom of the eighth, the Lakers took the lead when Trenton Renquist hit a sinking liner that skipped past the diving Pipestone center fielder for a two-run triple.
Jacob Brey came on to pitch the ninth inning for the Lakers, recording a key strikeout after Pipestone had brought the potential tying run to the plate. Brey picked up the save for the Lakers.
Jon Faber worked 1-2/3 innings of relief to earn the pitching victory.
Next games: Check for updates after each game.
Windom: at Lakefield, July 16
Mt. Lake: at Tracy, July 17
