Martins rally: Big ninth gives Fairmont the jump on Windom
Jul. 28—WINDOM — Moving out to a quick 3-0 lead, then trailing 4-3 in the sixth, the Fairmont Martins scored four times in the top of the ninth inning Wednesday night and held on for a 7-6 victory over Windom in the first game of a best-of-three Region 13C amateur baseball series.
The Martins, seeded six to Windom's three in the tournament, won despite having to face the Pirates' ace pitcher, Collin Lovell, at Island Park in Windom.
Pitcher Luke Gilbertson, in relief of Lovell, gave up a lead-off double to Fairmont's Nate Soelter in the final inning. Blake Crawmer then laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line and runners straddled first and third base. On the first pitch to the next hitter, Eli Anderson, Anderson singled in the hole between shortstop and third to for a run to tie the game. Spencer Chirpich struck out, but Jon Traetow delivered a hard two-run triple deep to right field which put his team up 6-4. A sacrifice fly by Tyler Tennyson made it 7-4.
Traetow's hit was a biggie. It came after he hit a bloop single past Windom first baseman Kobe Lovell in the eighth inning off Gilbertson.
"He fooled me the at bat before with the slider that I thumbed just right over Kobe at first base," Traetow said after the game. "I knew he had that pitch in his back pocket. He threw me a fastball that started in and just leaked over the plate. And I was just lucky enough to get barrel."
Collin Lovell is widely regarded as one of the top amateur pitchers in the state. On Wednesday, he was uncharacteristically shaky in the first inning, where he gave up three solid singles to Anderson, Chirpich and Traetow to start the game, then surrendered a third-inning home run over the left-field fence to Tennyson. But he battled, throwing well more than 100 pitches in seven innings of work as his Pirates fought back to take a 4-3 lead.
Two years ago, the crafty, hard-throwing Lovell helped Fairmont win a state Class C championship as a draftee.
"He is the best pitcher, my opinion, in the state. He won us a state tournament two years ago. We rode him hard and he delivered," said Traetow. "We knew we were gonna have to battle at the plate, because we know how good he is. We just said, 'Never an easy out, never an easy out.'"
Tennyson pitched the first five and two-thirds innings for Fairmont, and for the most part he seemed to confuse the Pirates with his right-handed, side-arm delivery and change of speeds. Traetow relieved him in the sixth and hurled 2.1 innings before Chirpich came on and finished the game.
Windom got its first run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Braydon Kreofsky and its second run in the fifth on a single by Nick Christensen. In the sixth, Kyle Espenson drilled a double over center-fielder Anderson's head with two out to score the game-tying and go-ahead runs.
The Pirates got a lead-off double by Gilbertson and an RBI single by Christensen in the bottom of the ninth. They scored their second run on an infield out, but that still left them one run short.
Game Two of the best-of-three series was scheduled for Friday night in Fairmont. Three of the eight Gopher League and First Nite League Region 13C teams will qualify for the 2022 state tourney.
Lovell is a lights-out pitcher much of the time. He credited the Marlins' out-of-the-box aggressiveness with setting the tone on Wednesday.
"I didn't show up right away. My breaking ball wasn't great to begin with, and they were very aggressive to start the game," he said, adding, "This team battles. We have a real good lineup here. We just gotta start off on a better foot."
Fairmont 201 000 004 — 7-13-0
Windom 000 112 002 — 6-10-0
