On Sunday the Muskies traveled to Belle Plaine for the second round of the State Tourney to take on the Region 14 Champs, the Long Prairie Predators. Just like last year's second round game against Fairmont in Delano, it was really hot and really sticky.
All week long the Muskies were hearing rumors of Long Prairie's draftee from Nimrod, a lefty named Gunner Johnson; by the scuttlebutt you would have thought him the unholy offspring of Paul Bunyan and William Wallace, but with a nastier curve ball. Well, the folklore legend comparisons may have been a little exaggerated, but his curve ball was as good as rumored. After he struck out Stewart and Rost in the first inning, the Fish knew they were in for a real test.
But the big fella, The Nate Rost, took the hill for the Fish once again, his long, conditioned locks flowing in the wind, and he picked up right where he left off against Mora: pounding the zone, real hard like.
After allowing a lead off walk in the 2nd inning to the LP clean up hitter (he then was promptly thrown out stealing by New Market catcher Jay Chlan), TNR completely locked in, and we had the makings of a bona fide pitcher's duel.
The Muskies got something cooking in 4th when Scotty Lyden drew a lead off walk; but he would be thrown out stealing as Johnson threw to first on something that resembled a balk, but alas, lead off walk erased. Again in the 6th, Stewart walked with one out, and this time managed to steal second despite Johnson's aforementioned sneaky pick off move; but he then worked himself out of the jam by striking out the next two hitters.
Finally, in the 7th, the Fish broke through.
Kyle Bergstrom led off with a solid double to the right center field gap. Nate Novak was brought in to pinch run, and Nate Rost promptly sent a single right back up the middle into center field. Nate Novak thought about running through Coach Todd's stop sign, but then thought better of it, at this time, however, the center fielder had bobbled the ball, which meant it probably would have paid off for Novak to run through said stop sign. As it turned out, the Fish had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out (TNR advanced to second on the throw home). A failed squeeze led to a strikeout, but then a past ball with Harry Ballantyne at the plate allowed Novak to score, giving the Fish a 1-0 lead. Harry would reach on a swinging bunt/fielder's choice and Rost would score on the wild throw to first. 2-0 Fish. Mike Carpentier then singled, but Johnson got his team out of a one out first and third situation and limited the damage to two runs.
Two runs would be plenty for Rost. The one out single by LP's two hitter was the only hit the Predators would get all day. LP looked as if the lead off hitter would reach in the 5th on a New Market throwing error, but Jay Chlan hustled down the first base line, and picked up the errant throw on one hop and surprised the heck out of the LP base runner who had only made the slightest move to second base---but that was enough for Jay to make a perfect throw to the waiting Kyle Bergstrom.
After the single in the 4th, TNR set down the next 17 hitters. That's what we call a complete game, one hit shutout with 9 K's. In two games, Nate has thrown 18 IP, allowed just four hits, and struck out 17 against just 2 BB.
The Fish will now face the Sobieski Ski's, who, by some accounts, upset the Maple Lake Lakers on Friday night by a score of 3-1. Either way, the game will be played on Saturday, August 30th at 730PM in Jordan at the Mini Met.
The Round of 16 will be something of a battle between Region 8 and Region 3. Region 8 has all four of its teams remaining and Region 3 has three teams remaining. Check out the Minnesota Baseball Association webpage for all the details about the remaining DRS teams.
