Hayfield & Lourdes advance in MSHSL boys’ baseball tournaments
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(ABC 6 News) – Tuesday, the Minnesota State High School League baseball tournament kicked off in St. Cloud, with two local schools on a mission for championship gold.
The Hayfield Vikings knew the road to a second-straight Class A title game would be far from easy as they faced the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds. Vikings come out swinging, four runs in the first two innings. Aiden Nelson chalking up an RBI as does Ethan Pack.
It looked like smooth sailing for Hayfield until Carver Heydt runs into trouble in the top of the 7th. New Ulm Cathedra down 5-4, one more out, can Fritcher finish it? That ball is low, but it’s called strike!
Hayfield narrowly avoids disaster with a 5-4 win over New Ulm Cathedral.
Onto Lourdes vs. Wadena-Deer Creek to open up the Class AA Tournament. For those expecting the bats to light up, it was a pitcher’s duel early on. Lourdes’ Joe Sperry and Wadena-Deer Creek’s Josh Dykhoff trading strikeouts as few get on base.
Top of the 4th, it ends up being Sperry who draws first blood for Lourdes, a deep shot to center field that turns into an RBI triple!
The senior Eagle putting his stamp on the game to make 1-0.
In comes Luke Bigler to pinch run for Sperry as he gets home thanks to a Wolverines wild pitch, 2-0 Eagles.
Sperry would come in clutch again, delivering a 3-RBI Double which serves to put Wadena-Deer Creek out of commission. 7-3 Final as the Eagles are in the Class AA semis.
Lourdes Head Coach Dave Jenson, “We want to set ourselves up for an opportunity where we win today. That’s the only game we’re going to play today, is today. But yeah, definitely feels great, we knew it was going to be a great game and that they had — I mean, they threw their two best pitchers. We kind of had the mindset, ‘We’re going to go with our best today, win this game at all costs.’ And fortunately, we had some big innings offensively.”
The defending Class A Champions in Hayfield will face fourth-seed Sacred Heart Wednesday and the Lourdes Eagles will face the top seed in their Class AA bracket.