Day two: Babe Ruth district tourney continues
Jul. 13—BELFIELD, N.D. — After the second day of games, only six teams remain and only two still stand undefeated. The battling has been relentless and tiring, but the energy from the young athletes has been unbeatable.
The day of competition started from the loser's bracket with Bowman being shutout by their opponents, Hettinger, in a 10-0 contest.
Belfield-South Heart Knights Purple also exited the competition in a 12-2 defeat against Washburn. Washburn started off with a six-run first inning taking advantage of walked batters with timely hitting. Washburn has 11 hits, nine RBIs. The team's third baseman J. Miller had a good outing going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs.
Belfield-South Heart's pitchers allowed 13 walks in total, but also struck out seven batters. The young team's two runs in the fifth inning — collected by a bases loaded walk and a wild pitch — made the score 8-2 and showed that the players refused to quit. A four-run inning in the seventh for Washburn further cemented their victory as they move forward into the tournament.
In the winner's bracket, Hazen Lumberkings fell to the Garrison Knights, who once again put the ball over the fence for a three-run homer and a decisive lead. The game slowly fell away from Lumberkings despite them staying competitive through the game. Ultimately it ended with a 12-2 result.
"We came in really focused and ready to go this afternoon. We were ready to get on the sticks right away, our pitchers pitched really well and we made plays when we had to," Gage Gehring, assistant coach for Garrison Titans said. "We really did a good job when runners were on base getting those outs."
The day ended with another well-battled game for the Belfield-South Heart Knights Gray that took on Beulah. Just the day before, Beulah had defeated the Knights Purple in a 12-5 contest, but the Knights Gray had no intention for a similar outcome.
Both sides showed good composure on the mound, keeping it tied at zero until the bottom of the fourth. Brayden Kastrow changed the game after knocking the ball long for a two-run homer for the Knights.
Head coach of the Knights Quentin Obrigewitsch praised his starting pitcher and Kastrow and their combined efforts in the game.
"We got a couple of guys that are probably our ace pitchers and Luke is one of them and he did his job... Kastrow crushing the one over the fence was great and it doesn't get much better than that to get the bats going and to get hitting going too," Obrigewitsch said. "Great job by those two guys. It is interesting, they have been playing baseball together since they were five or six years old so it's fun to watch those two play together like that."
Belfield-South Heart extended their 2-0 lead to a 6-0 lead in the sixth inning.
It got started with two RBIs by first baseman Jordan Koppinger before scoring himself off a two RBI double hit by designated hitter Shane Stroh.
Beulah scored two runs in the seventh inning, but came only as consolation with the game ending in a 6-2 result.
Day three will cut the competition in half as only three teams will survive to try and claim the championship.
Moving into the loser's bracket, Beulah and Hazen will battle it out against Hettinger and Washburn respectively. The winner's bracket widdles down to just one team, The Titian and Knights will meet, both sides already showing that they have eager and hard hitters.
