Bandits win twice, then fall in final

The clock struck midnight for the Rum River Bandits around 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10.

But the Bandits sure did enjoy the ball while it lasted.

Rum River claimed two wins in the Class C Region 1 tournament that day, knocking off host Hinckley and Chisago Lakes before falling to Princeton in the team’s third game in 12 hours. That loss left the Bandits just one win shy of claiming a berth in the Class C state tournament.

“Even though we didn’t finish the job, it was fun to be here,” Rum River manager John Gaub said. “We played games and we won, and that was enjoyable. That’s what we’re here for, right?”

Rum River’s run seemed close to ending before it got rolling as the Hinckley contest saw the Knights score three runs in the first and another run in the second before Ryan Garlick got the Bandits on the board with a home run in the fourth.

From that point Hinckley and Rum River traded punches, with the Knights taking leads of 7-2 through six innings and 10-4 through seven before the Bandits came to bat in the ninth trailing 10-5.

“They scored 10 runs, but we handed them quite a few of those runs,” said Gaub, noting that his team committed four errors while issuing five walks and hitting five batters. “I felt it was the baseball gods coming back to give us a few runs [in the ninth].”

Rum River got its first two batters on, then benefited from a wild throw and a booted grounder to score two runs. A third run came home when Duke Waxberg was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, but a strikeout meant the Bandits had only one out left and still trailed 10-8.

Seth Plohasz lined a clutch two-run double to left that tied the game, and Garlick followed with an equally clutch two-run single to right to give his team a 12-10 lead.

“The thing we’ve done all tournament is continue to hit,” Gaub said. “When you put the ball in play, and you hit the ball hard, good things are going to happen. When you force the defense to make plays, they don’t always make plays – especially in pressure situations.”

Hinckley managed to score a run in the bottom of the ninth to make things interesting, but Bandits reliever Brayden Olson notched his second strikeout to end the game, preserve the win and ignite a celebration by Rum River.

“We were saying all game that we should never quit,” first baseman Kevin Auth said. “We wanted to give ourselves a chance. We might play that situation 20 times and have it happen that way only once, but it happened.

“This group of guys doesn’t give up, so it’s a lot of fun when something like that happens.”

Garlick led the offense with four hits and four RBIs, while Waxberg and Owen Forschen each added three hits to Rum River’s 15-hit attack.

That lifted the Bandits into a contest against Chisago Lakes, which beat Ramsey to set up the matchup. In this game Rum River used a six-run first inning to eventually outslug the Bulldogs 11-6.

“I was confident we were going to be able to score – it was a matter of our pitching and defense being able to keep us in games,” Gaub said. “Even though we’ve had some high-scoring games, we’ve kept ourselves in a position to win games.”

The pitching and the defense was strong enough against the Bulldogs. Olson, after throwing three innings against Hinckley, threw a complete game against Chisago Lakes and held that team to six runs while striking out five.

“I was thinking that I had to attack fast and get stuff done,” he said. “I felt I could have done a little better, but I performed well enough to get the win.”

And the defense committed only one error, while the offense produced two more runs in the fifth and seventh as well as one in the ninth to pull away.

“I have a lot of faith in my team” Olson said. “It’s a great feeling to pitch for a team that can hit the ball.”

Another 15-hit effort saw Auth reach base six times thanks to three hits, two hit batsmen and a walk, while Garlick collected four hits and a walk.

“We felt we were playing with house money at that point,” Auth said. “When you’re playing like that, you can play free and relaxed. You don’t put pressure on yourself; you just have fun.”

As perfect as the start of the Chisago Lakes game was for Rum River, the Princeton game could not have started worse for the Bandits. In the Chisago Lakes contest Seth Plohasz, who started against Hinckley, was injured; that meant Olson, who already had thrown 179 pitches on the day, had to start against the Panthers.

“When I get the call, I’m going to pitch,” he said.

Unfortunately Olson was unable to get an out, allowing six batters to reach base before Mike Koplitz entered the game roughly five minutes after arriving at the field. The Panthers scored six times in the first and eventually pulled away to notch a 15-5 victory in eight innings.

“Credit to Princeton, which was 12-3 in the Eastern Minny League during the regular season,” Gaub said. “Obviously they’re a good team, and them coming in rested — compared to where we were — was to their advantage.”

Rum River didn’t give up, though, scoring a run in the third and four times in the fifth. But that was where the Bandits offense sputtered, while the Panthers pulled away by scoring single runs in the second, third and fourth before piling on two runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth.

“It’s just tough to play three games in one day,” Auth said. “We went through this last year, and we were close until we ran out of gas.”

Colton Skoglund had three hits, including a double, and scored twice for Rum River against Princeton, while Auth, Garlick and Gaub each contributed two hits.

“When you have 16 teams in the region, the tournament format is what it is,” Gaub said. “It stinks [that we had to play three games in one day], but shame on us from not winning our first game [and putting ourselves in this situation]. …

“Fortunately this is the last year of this format.”

While the loss left Rum River one game shy of a state tournament berth, the Bandits did win five straight tournament games before the setback against the Panthers.

“But it’s hard to win three games [in one day],” Olson said. “It especially hurt to lose this last one, because you’re so close to the state tournament.

“But we can learn and improve from this and be better next year.”