Miners take two games from Bucks, Muskies

BEMIDJI—The Hibbing amateur baseball team won two games Saturday, beating Bemidji 10-4, then coming back to beat Warroad 13-2.

Against the Bucks, Lane Gerber was the winning pitcher, tossing five innings of five-hit ball. He struck out nine and walked two. Ethan Ambuehl worked two innings, allowing one hit. He struck out four and walked one.

Lucas Pierce took the loss for Bemidji, working six innings. He gave up nine hits, and struck out five. Sawyer Nendick worked the seventh, giving up two hits. He walked three.

“That finished with a split with them on the year,” Hibbing manager Adam Schafer said. “We’ve won five in a row and eight of our last nine, so that is kind of the same trajectory we took last year.

“Our confidence and momentum are starting to build as we head into the final weeks of the season.”

The Bucks struck first in the first inning, scoring three times on RBI singles by Dylan Waukazo and Ryan Loewe. Loewe would steal home on the back end of a double steal.

“He (Pierce) got us one, two, three in the top of the first on four pitches,” Schafer said. “In the bottom of the inning, we had some walks and some errors, It felt like we weren’t ready to play after our first game with Warroad.”

The Miners responded with two runs in the second inning as Dylan Hedley singled and scored on a double by Nick Peters. Peters scored on a Kyler Miller single.

Hibbing took the lead in the third, with everything happening with two out.

Gideon Beck reached on a fielder’s choice ground ball and stole second. He scored on a single by Kodi Miller. Hedley hit an RBI double, then he scored on a single by Matt Erickson.

From there, Gerber shut down Bemidji from the second to sixth innings, allowing two hits in the process.

“It wasn’t Lane’s fault at all,” Schafer said about that first inning. “We didn’t give him much help, then he settled in and threw well, putting up zeros. We were matching what their pitcher was doing, but we were able to hold that lead for the majority of the game.”

Leading 5-3, the Miners added five insurance runs in the seventh.

Joe Lescarbeau started the inning off with a double. Brooks Bachmann walked, then Beck hit an RBI single.

With runners on first and third, Beck stole second. Kodi Miller would ground out, but an error allowed Bachmann to score, and sent Beck to third. Beck would score on a wild pitch.

John Wengenroth would walk with two outs, then Peters reached on an error, putting runners on first and second.

Kyler Miller walked to load the bases, then two wild pitches allowed Wengenroth and Peters to score to make it 10-3.

“We got those important insurance runs in the seventh, with the top of our order leading the charge,” Schafer said. “We were quiet in the middle innings, then they brought in a different pitcher, and he struggled.”

The Bucks would get one run in the seventh, again on the backend of a double steal.

Cam Justice singled and took second whenWill Zellmann walked. Justice took third on a fly ball, then they executed that double steal to perfection.

Ambuehl would strikeout the final two hitters to end the game.

“Ethan closed the door,” Schafer said. “He threw strikes, and made their hitters work. We sharpened up defensively, too.”

Hedley, Peters and Kyler Miller would all finish with two hits.

Justice and Dylan Waukazo both had two hits for Bemidji.

Against the Muskies, Hibbing took a 3-0 lead after one inning as Lescarbeau doubled and took second when Bachmann walked. They both advanced up a base on a wild pitcher.

Lescarbeau scored on a wild pitch, then Beck hit an RBI single. Beck would eventually score on a wild pitch.

Warroad got two runs in the second when Vance Kleinschmidt hit a two-run single, but from there it was all Miners.

In the second, Griffin Dosan walked, then scored on a double by Kyler Miller. Lescarbeau hit an RBI single, then Bachmann and Beck hit singles to load the bases.

Lescarbeau scored on a wild pitch , and Bachmann scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Hedley.

In the third, Dosan led off with a single, then after a pop out, Nick Shea and Dan Wood walked to load the bases.

Tucker Holm would hit a two-run single, and Hedley hit another sacrifice fly to make it 11-2.

In the fourth, Dosan reached on a one-out error, then scored on a triple off the bat of Kyler Miller. Miller scored when Shea reached on a dropped third strike passed ball.

“We did what we needed to do against them,” Schafer said. “The goal was to get it into a 10-run situation, then focus on Bemidji, but we don’t take anyone for granted. We got those three, then we gave up two.

“We had to keep our foot on the gas. Cole (Mammenga) settled in and pitched well through innings three, four and five. One through nine, we hit across the board. We had a strong lineup in both games. The majority of our guys were there, and that’s a big piece to that flexibility with our lineup. We’ve got a lot of guys we can trust one through nine.”

Mammenga got the pitching win, tossing five innings of one-hit ball. He struck out nine and walked three.

Kleinschmidt worked four innings, allowing nine hits, striking out three and walking four.

Lescarbeau, Beck and Kyler Miller all had two hits.