AURORA—The Mesabi East baseball team ran into a good pitcher from Pequot Lakes on Friday afternoon.
The Giants did what they had to do and came away with a 4-3 win.
“We knew coming in, that they were a better team than their record would say,” Mesabi East head Coach Chad Sahr said. “But did just enough today to pick up that win.”
After a scoreless first inning, the Patriots scored a run in the top of the second.
Blake Spiczka hit a single, stole second base, and came in to score when Owen Krueger hit an RBI single.
Giants starter Cooper Sickel got the third out on a grounder.
Mesabi East came up in the bottom of the second and with one out Easton Sahr singled and when he was on third with one out, Louis Karish laid down a perfect Suicide Squeeze bunt that scored Sahr to tie the game at 1-1.
Neither team could get anything going in the third inning.
Sickle put the Rebels down in order in the top of the fourth inning.
Mesabi East picked up the lead when Dakota Kruse singled, stole second and third, and came in to score when the throw to third base went to the outfield and the Giants had a 2-1 lead.
“That was big,” Sahr said. “We have some players who can really run the bases.”
In the top of the fifth inning, Kruse took over on the mound for the Giants.
Kyle Kotaska started the inning for the Patriots with a single, but was thrown out by Ryder Gerulli trying to steal second.
Pequot then loaded up the bases with two outs when Connor Quale hit a double, Clay Erickson walked, and Ryan Fritz hit an infield single to load the bases with two outs.
Griffin Hoffman then came up and smashed a double all the way to the fence that looked like it was going to clear the bases.
But Fritz came around and missed third base and was called out, so only two runners counted.
That gave the Rebels a 3-2 lead.
“You don’t see that very often,” Sahr said. “But the Umpire was right there and saw him miss the base.”
The Giants couldn’t get anything going in the home-half of the fifth inning.
Kruse struck out two Rebels in the top of the sixth inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, Sickle started the inning by reaching on a bunt single.
That is when the rain started to fall and game was put in a rain delay for about 30 minutes.
Following the delay, Sickle stole second base, went to third on a passed ball, and came in to score when Grrulli hit a single to tie the game at three.
Mesabi East scored what turned out to be the game winning run when Landon Mathison came in to pinch run for catcher Gerulli, and Came in to score when Zach Norberg hit a RBI single.
Kruse set the Pariots down in order in the top of the seventh to close out the game.
“That was a game that could have gone either way,” Sahr said. “But we did what we had to do to win it.”
Kruse picked up the win in relief on the mound going three innings, giving up two runs, four hits, striking out three, and walking only one.
The Giants will host Rock Ridge on Thursday.
“It sure doesn’t get any easier,” Sahr said. “We just have to come out and play our game.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0