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Baseball roundup: KMS vs. Paynesville: Battle of the unbeatens

tom elliott, west central tribune, willmar, minn.
·5 min read

May 27—PAYNESVILLE — Two of the West Central Tribune's top baseball teams met for a little non-conference game Thursday night.

Call it a tuneup for the playoffs.

Paynesville beat Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 3-2 at the Paynesville Baseball Park.

It was the first loss of the season for KMS, which is now 16-1 and headed to a top seed in Section 6A-South. Paynesville improves to 18-0 and is vying for the top seed in Section 3AA with Fairmont, which has the No. 1 QRF powering ranking in the state in Class AA. Paynesville is No. 3.

The Fighting Saints have a No. 4 QRF power ranking in the state in Class A and have been scoring 8.9 runs per game — until Thursday.

Three Paynesville pitchers held KMS to six hits. Eli Nelson started and went one inning. Bryce VanderBeek then went the next three innings and Isaac Lieser pitched the final three. Lieser got the save, striking out four and walking one.

Paynesville led 2-0 through three innings before KMS scored two runs in the top of the fourth. Hunter Kallstrom drove in both runs with a base hit for the Fighting Saints.

The Bulldogs then went ahead in the bottom of the fourth. Jevan Terres led off Paynesville's half of the inning by getting hit by a pitch. Spencer Lieser then doubled him home.

In the first inning, Eil Nelson had an RBI double to score Max Athmann, who had reached on a single.

In the third, Nelson drove home another run with a single, scoring Grayson Fuchs, who got on with a base hit and moved to second on an Athmann single.

Jared Cortez took the loss for KMS despite pitching a complete game. He struck out five, walked no one and allowed eight hits and two earned runs.

KMS 000 200 0-2 6 0

Paynesville 101 100 x-3 8 1

Hitting — KMS: Isaac Rudningen 1-4, Wylee Lottman 1-3, Jared Cortez 1-3, Alex Call 1-3 r, Hunter Kallstrom 1-3 r rbi-2, Jaiden Henjum 1-3 ... Paynesville: Grayson Fuchs 2-3 r, Max Athmann 2-3 r, Eli Nelson 2-4 rbi-2, Gavin Miller 1-3, Spencer Lieser 1-2 rbi

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — KMS: Jared Cortez (L) 6-8-3-2-0-5 ... Paynesville: Eli Nelson 1-0-0-0-0-1, Bryce VanderBeek (W) 3-5-2-2-0-1, Isaac Lieser (Sv) 3-1-0-0-0-4

Nikson Knapper went 3-for-5 with three runs and an RBI to help Yellow Medicine East to the victory at Ortonville.

Jake Odegard went 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI for YME.

Connor Hagen pitched the last four innings for the Sting, allowing three hits and no earned runs. He walked two and struck out no one.

Carter Powell was 2-for-3 with a run and Carter Lee was 2-for-3 for Ortonville.

YME 420 001 3-9 9 5

Ortonville 102 200 0-5 6 6

Hitting — YME: Nikson Knapper 3-5 r-3 rbi, Drew Almich 1-5 r rbo. Bryce Sneller 1-4 rbi, Cody Dahlager 1-4 r, Jake Odegard 2-4 r-2 rbi, Connor Fagen 1-3 r rbi-2 ... Ortonville: Carter Powell 2-3 r, Jasper Tweeter 1-4, Carter Lee 2-3. Isaac Kirchberg 1-2 r

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — YME: Isaac Jimenez 3-3-3-1-2-1, Connor Fagen (W) 4-3-2-0-2-0 ... Ortonville: Joshua Mueller (L) 6-7-6-5-3-1, Hunter Merritt 1-2-3-0-0-0

Upsala/Swanville Area captured the non-conference game from Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa at Upsala.

BBE now has a 9-5 record. The Patriots are 12-0.

Caden Besemer struck out 11, walked no one and scattered seven hits and two earned runs ove seven innings to help Litchfield beat the Breck School in Golden Valley.

Litchfield is the ninth seed in Section 5AA. Breck is the eighth seed. Litchfield plays in the winners' bracket at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday Southwest Christian at 4:30 p.m. Southwest Christian is the top seed. It beat No. 16 Minneapolis Patrick Henry 11-1 to advance.

Litchfield 010 040 2-7 7 0

Breck 001 000 1-2 7 1

Hitting — Litchfield: Bauer Wahl 1-4, Hunter Schultz 2-3 r-2 bb, Daniel Estrada 2-4 r rbi-3, Caden Besemer 1-2 rbi bb-2, Beau Weseloh 1-2 r rbi-2 ... Breck: Nate Miller 2-4 rbi, Colin Mitchell 2-4 r rbi, Tommy Hofer 1-3, Max Aronson 2-3

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Litchfield: Caden Besemer (W) 7-7-2-2-0-11 ... Breck: William Silton 4.2-4-5-4-4-4, Tommy Hofer 2.1-3-2-2-1-1

No. 5 Mankato Loyola/Immanuel Lutheran earned a walk-off victory with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning over BOLD in the Section 2A playoffs at Mankato.

BOLD is the 12th seed in Section 2A.

Tate Sheehan had a huge game for the Warriors, going 4-for-4 with a run and two RBI. Jack Kaiser was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.

Loyola plays at 5 p.m. Tuesday at fourth-seeded Sleepy Eye in the winners' bracket.

BOLD 000 222 0-6 7 8

Mankato Loyola 023 100 1-7 10 2

Hitting — BOLD: Tate Sheehan 4-4 r rbi-2, Jack Kaiser 2-3 r rbi, Max Benson 1-2 r rbi ... Mankato Loyola: Lawson Godfrey 2-4 rbi-2, Jaxon Libby 1-4 r, Jake Eichers 2-4 r, Christian Theuninck 2-4 r-2 rbi, Kyle Zimmerman 1-3 r

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — BOLD: Ryan Gass (L) 6.2-10-7-1-3-8 ... Mankato Loyola: Jaxon Libby (W) 7-7-6-2-2-12