You have to go back a couple of years to find a Region seeding game that had the feel of a State Tourney contest. Without a doubt, this game had the intensity of late August and Labor Day baseball.

 

Calls were overturned, despite a lack of bona fide replay-review, coaches were warned, players were chirping; it was a gritty game from start to finish. And the guy to start bringing grit on the mound was none other than Mr. Riley Ahern, fresh off a stint with the Northwoods league St. Cloud Rox.

 

Riley had a fire in his eyes, it was fun to watch him toe the rubber after being away for a month. He gave up his fair share of hits, but as per usual, found a way to wiggle out of jams left and right. St. Patrick ended up stranding nine men on base---a paltry figure compared to the thirteen we ended up leaving on.

 

We got on the board right away. Scotty Lyden reached on an error and two batters later touched the dish thanks to an RBI double from Andy "The Anaconda" Henkemeyer.

 

We added another in the third after The Snake reached on a lead-off walk and showed some dazzling speed as he came all the way around to score on a The Nate Rost double.

 

2-0 Fish after three.

 

St. Patrick mounted a rally in the fourth. Seth Ambroz led off with a double, but was eventually gunned out at the plate thanks to the right field cannon that is the right arm of Tony Vocca. He picked up the Dom DeLuca single, inspected the ball for a hot tick, then proceeded to throw an absolute laser to home, where Andy made a nifty scoop on a short hop and applied the tag, quashing the aforementioned rally before it did any damage. Heck of a play all around.

 

The score would stay 2-0 until the top of the 8th, when Seth Ambroz took relief pitcher Tony Vocca deep. Tito was obviously not happy about that, so he struck out the next two hitters and ended the inning.

 

Danny Phyle single handedly gave us an insurance run in the 8th. After barreling up balls all evening, he finally got one to land in center for a single. Two batters later, there was a weird play were the ball got away from the first basemen, and DP just ... kept ... running. Part snowball fight on the part of the Irish, and part pure speed brought Danny in; again, he was on first, the ball was thrown to first, and he still scored. My goodness. Fun to watch.

 

Not to be outdone, Herber brought the game to an end with an Aaron Hicks like diving catch in left. I don't recall seeing Herbie dive before, but he picked a good time to start, because it was a sweet play and it made everyone cheer and a few players do sky punches.

 

Scotty's 0-3 ended a 19 game hitting streak, which is tied for the second longest in the wood bat era of Muskies history. Also, his next hit will be his 400th as a Fish. Vocca's oh-fer ended a six game streak of multiple hits (he had three hits in the previous three games, and has done that seven times this year; the record for consecutive games with at least three hits is still held by el web maestro, who did it six games in a row back in 2011).

 

We may have got out hit, but we didn't get out played. Solid team win, no one got tossed, Todd got a few beverages poured on his head, 'twas a fun evening and a good way to clinch our second Region 3 Championship in a row.

 

We play a tune-up game in Jordan on Tuesday, August 20th at 7:30 PM CDT, and our first State game will be in Maple Lake on Sunday, August 25th at 4:30 PM CDT against the winner of Carver v. Luverne.

 

Thanks for coming out, it was a great crowd! See y'all in Maple Lake.