Monroe National, Ash-Carleton move into winners' bracket finals

MONROE – The Monroe National players earned themselves a day off.

Coach Matt Wszelaki rewarded his team with two straight mercy-rule wins to open the 64th annual Monroe County Fair Baseball Tournament by giving his team a day to relax.

More: Pairings for Monroe County Fair Softball and Baseball Tournaments

He had considered a practice after his team moved into the Tuesday's winners' bracket finals but decided to call it off.

“I am going to give them a day off,” Wszelaki. “The boys have responded well (to the first two games).”

Ash-Carleton also will take Monday off after they scored seven times in the final inning to pull away for a 12-1 victory over Dundee Sunday.

"Yeah, enjoy the day off," Ash-Carleton coach Cody Jones said.

Monroe National will play Ash-Carleton in the winners' bracket finals at 6:15 p.m.

Monday's schedule has Maybee vs. Ida Blue at 4:30 p.m. followed by Dundee vs. Bedford.

Monroe National 16, Ida Blue 1

Monroe National opened with an eight-run first inning for the second straight game.

“We wanted to set the tone in the last game,” Wszelaki said. “I don't care about that any more. Today is a new day.”

A new day with more homers.

After Rylan MacDonald hit the first home run of the tournament Saturday, Weston Cosby and Harrison Becker cleared the fences in the opening inning Sunday.

Cosby's was a three-run shot, and Becker connected with one man on base.

Lead-off hitter Levi Cousino went 3-for-3.

MacDonald was perfect in his two pitching innings, striking out five of the six hitters he faced.

Brayden Boldt singled and scored Ida Gold's run.

Ash-Carleton 12, Dundee 2

Gavin Metzger got things started with the fourth over-the-fence homer of the tournament in the opening inning, but Ash-Carleton struggled to score after that.

The slow start didn’t concern Jones.

“That’s kind of been our M.O.,” he said. “They (Dundee) had some good pitchers, but we finally broke through.”

Sam Geiger led the offense with three hits, including a double, and scored twice. Mason Lefebvre and Brayden Zanger also had multiple hits, and Weston Philbeck tripled for the key hit in the seven-run sixth.

Bubba Gariety had two hits and scored both runs for Dundee. Kaeden McCarty drove in both runs with a single and a triple.

Bedford 13, Ida Gold 6

Ida Gold scored all of its runs in the first two innings to take the early lead, then Bedford came roaring back.

Caleb McMunn, Jaycee Hughes and Jaxson Walker had two hits each for the winners while Cody Hetrick tripled and Hughes, Walker and Hudson McKibben doubled.

Clay Ovall and Cody Hetrick closed out the game with four scoreless innings, giving up just three hits.

Eli Kavanaugh went 4-for-4 with three doubles to lead Ida Gold. Harley Pfeiffer and Ripken added two hits each.

Maybee 17, Frenchtown 2

Maybee rang up 14 runs in the opening inning to cruise to victory.

Ben Illes, Charlie Smart, Seth Jaskot, Cam Grubb and Frank Lange all scored twice in the big inning.

Bobby Jones, Illes and Jaskot each finished with two hits.

Aryon King went 2-for-2 with a double and scored a run for Frenchtown.

Bedford 8, Monroe American 4

Bedford completed a comeback by scoring five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Jaxon Walker logged two hits to lead the winners, who got strong pitching from Hudson McKibben, Clay Ovall and Cody Hetrick.

Liam Flowers recorded two hits and scored twice for Monroe American. Jackson Schilling went 2-for-2, and Nolan Aulph doubled and Marshall Griffin scored twice.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe National, Ash-Carleton move into winners' bracket finals