Area baseball roundup: Bird Island Bullfrogs pile up the hits

Jun. 23—ATWATER — The Bird Island Bullfrogs put on a hit parade through the first three innings against the Atwater Chuckers.

Building an 11-2 and collecting seven hits through the first three innings, the Bullfrogs won the non-league game 17-6 Friday at Kingery Field.

Five players had multiple hits for Bird Island.

James Woelfel finished 3-for-6 with four RBIs and two runs scored from the No. 3 spot. Behind him was Aidan Elfering, who also went 3-for-6. Elfering hit for a pair of doubles, had four RBIs and scored once. Dylan Gass, Logan Swann and Nic Taylor all had two hits and scored two runs from the 7-8-9 spots. Gass also had four RBIs, three of which came on a three-run home run in the top of the ninth.

Swann was also the winning pitcher, striking out nine over seven innings.

Atwater's offense was led by Josh Kingery. He hit a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the first inning. He followed that up with a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth. Kingery finished 2-for-3.

Jordan Olson finished 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI for the Chuckers.

Bird Island has another non-league game at 2 p.m. Saturday against the St. Boni Saints at St. Bonifacius. Atwater heads to Regal at 1:30 p.m. Sunday for a County Line League game.

Bird Island 164 300 003-17 15 1

Atwater 200 400 000-6 8 3

Hitting — Bird Island: Braeden Tersteeg 1-4 r-4 bb-4 sb-4, Trent Athmann 1-2 2b r-2 rbi-2 bb-3 hbp sb, James Woelfel 3-6 r-2 rbi-4, Aidan Elfering 3-6 2b-2 r rbi-4, Zeke Walton 1-6 2b r, Shawn Dollerschell 0-3 r-2 bb-3 sb, Dylan Gass 2-6 hr 2b r-2 rbi-4, Logan Swann 2-5 r-2 bb sb, Nic Taylor 2-6 r-2 rbi sb ... Atwater: Josh Kingery 2-3 hr-2 r-2 rbi-5 bb-2 sb, Jack Peterson 1-5, Kobe Holtz 0-3 r bb hbp, Jordan Olson 2-5 2b rbi, Jaxon Behm 1-4, Hayden Straumann 0-2 r, Zach Bagley 1-4 r, Terrell Renne 1-3 r

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Bird Island: Swann (W) 7-8-6-5-1-9, Tersteeg 2-0-0-0-2-4 ... Atwater: Holtz 2.1-6-10-7-3-1, Peterson 0.2-0-3-3-4-2, Bagley 5.1-7-4-4-3-5

Avery Liestman struck out 12 over eight innings to help lead the Litchfield Blues past the Hutchinson Huskies in a North Star League game at Optimist Park in Litchfield.

Liestman scattered five hits and allowed one earned run with three walks to help the Blues improve their league record to 8-5. Hutchinson is 5-6 in the North Star.

Long-time Litchfield High School baseball coach Jeff Wollin was inducted into the North Star League Hall of Fame in pre-game ceremonies. Wollin played for the Blues for 17 seasons and 30 overall in amateur baseball. His teams made 11 state tournament appearances, including seven with the Blues. He has been head high school coach for 34 seasons.

The Blues next play post to Rockford at 1 p.m. Sunday at Optimist Park.

Hutchinson 100 000 001-2 6 2

Litchfield 000 220 21x-7 7 0

Hitting — Hutchinson: Matt Piechowski 0-3 r bb, Sam Rensch 1-3 hbp sb, Jayden Fleck 1-3 bb, Marcus Hahn 1-3 rbi sf, Lane Glaser 2-4 r 2b sb, Cody Arlt 1-3 rbi sf, Sam Starke 0-3 bb ... Litchfield: Andrew Loch 1-2 r-2 bb-2 hbp sb, Bennett Lecher 1-4 r rbi hbp, Cody Klabunde 0-0 rbi hbp, Eric Hulterstrum 1-5 rbi, John Anderson 0-1 r bb, Eddie Estrada 0-1 rbi sf, Avery Liestman 1-4 r rbi 2b, Winky Estrada 1-4, Jake Jones 0-4 rbi, Carson Deal 0-3 r bb, Jordan Lecher 2-3 r sb

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Hutchinson: Jon DeRock (L) 6-6-4-4-2-1, KK Starrett 1-1-2-1-1-0, Ty Glaser 1-0-1-1-10 ... Litchfield: Liestman (W) 8-5-1-1-3-12, Joey Hyde 1-1-1-0-0-1

Millard Black of Nebraska beat host BOLD in the first round of the 21st annual Mudhens Legion Tournament at Lions Memorial Park in Bird Island.

Left-hander Aaron Jung tossed a complete game for Millard, a suburb of Omaha. He struck out eight and walked one, scattering eight hits and allowing three earned runs.

"They're a good bunch of guys, always competitive," BOLD head coach Joe Dollerschell said.

Max Benson went 3-for-3 with a triple and a run for the Mudhens, who play in the consolation bracket of the eight-team tournament at 9 a.m. Saturday. BOLD plays Litchfield, which lost to West St. Paul, 6-4. West St. Paul plays Millard at 11:15 a.m. in the semifinals.

Other games Saturday feature Annandale playing St. Louis Park at 1:15 p.m. and New London-Spicer facing Howard Lake at 3:30 p.m. Losers from those two games play at 6 p.m., with the winners meeting after that.

Play continues into Sunday, with the seventh-place game commencing play at 9 a.m. The championship game is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. Sunday.

Dollerschell was pleased that his team had eight hits.

"We had a total of eight hits in our first five games," he said. "This is a positive for us."

Millard Black 315 000 1-10 9 2

BOLD 003 000 0-3 8 1

Hitting — Millard Black: Tyson Dirks 2-2 bb-2 r-3, Evan Hertzig 2-4 hr r rbi, Nate Eisold 2-3 sac rbi ... BOLD: Max Benson 3-3 3b r, Tate Sheehan 1-3 rbi, Lane Osterfeld 1-4 rbi-2, Owen Flann 1-4, Mason Uhlenkamp 1-2 r, Hunter Malvin 1-3

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Millard Black: Aaron Jung (W) 7-8-3-3-1-8 ... BOLD: Daylen Weber (L) 5-8-9-8-4-2, Malvin 2-1-1-1-0-2

The West St. Paul Challenger held off a late rally to beat Litchfield at Bird Island in the BOLD Mudhens tournament.

West St. Paul scored twice in the top of the seventh inning to build a 6-1 lead. But, Litchfield scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Calvin Jones went 2-for-3 with a run and a walk for Litchfield.

West St. Paul 001 102 2-6 11 2

Litchfield 000 100 3-4 8 4

Hitting — West St. Paul: Not available ... Litchfield: Jack McCann 1-3 r bb, Calvin Jones 2-3 r bb, Anthony Estrada 1-3 r bb sb-2, Caden Besemer 1-4 r rbi 2b, Connor Taber 1-3 bb, Jaxon Marquardt 1-3 bb

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — West St. Paul: n/a ... Litchfield: Bradley Larson (L) 5.1-7-3-3-2-4, Jones 1.2-4-3-1-0-2