St. Patrick clinches spot in state tourney, Union Hill still alive in Region 6C play

The St. Patrick Irish baseball team of the Blue Division of the D-R-S League gained a berth in the state Class C baseball tourney with three road wins during the past week in Region 6C tournament action. The Irish outscored their opponents 29-3 during the three games.

St. Patrick will play on Saturday, Aug. 19 in a state tourney game at Red Wing, at either 11:00 a.m. or 1:30 p.m., depending on the results of the region finals.

Union Hill, the other D-R-S league entry in the tournament, remained alive in the double elimination tourney as of Wednesday of this week. The Bulldogs were to meet Brownton at Union Hill Wednesday night.

If Union Hill wins on Wednesday they will play at Arlington Friday. If Brownton wins, Arlington plays Brownton.

Friday's winner will play at St. Patrick at 2 p.m. Sunday to determine #1 and #2 seed in the state tourney. If a second game is necessary, it would follow the first game.

The Region 6C results last week:

Wed., Aug. 2

Arlington 6, Carver 3

The Arlington A's beat Carver 6-3 in a first round game played at Belle Plaine.

St. Patrick 5, Brownton 0

D.J. Damberger, draftee pitcher from New Market, pitched a six-hit shutout for the Irish at Brownton as St. Patrick blanked the Bruins of the Carver Central League, 5-0, in an opening round game. Damberger struck out seven and walked two.

Josh Simon drove in three runs for the winners with a two-run single in the second inning and a sixth-inning single.

Adam Almich hit an RBI single in the fourth inning and the final run in the sixth was driven in by a Mike Goldsmith single.

Simon totaled three hits for St. Patrick and Wade Schuknecht and Jeff Bjerke each hit safely twice.

Ryan Hansch doubled for Brownton in the sixth inning but was one of eight runners left on base.

The line score: R H E

St. Patrick Irish..........020 102 000 - 5 12 0

Brownton Bruins.......000 000 000 - 0 6 0

D.J. Damberger and Matt Pexa. Josh Wendlund and Pat Schultz.

Fri., Aug. 4

Arlington 10, Union Hill 5

A six-run seventh inning, which snapped a 3-3 tie, put the A's out in front and Arlington went on to defeat the Bulldogs at Union Hill, 10-5.

Half of Arlington's runs came by way of the long ball with Mike Newman, draftee catcher from St. Peter, and Jesse Soeffker hitting solo homers in the fourth and fifth innings and Jon Werner banging a three-run homer during the seventh-inning rally.

Bryce Eggert and James Van Buskirk hit doubles for Arlington and Dan Smith hit a two-run double for Union Hill during a three-run first inning.

Eggert and Smith led their teams at bat with three hits apiece.

The line score: R H E

Arlington A's.............000 111 610 - 10 11 2

Union Hill Bulldogs .300 000 110 - 5 10 2

Mike Spurling and Mike Newman. Matt Sticha, Jeremy Wieland (7), Dan Novak (7) and John Masberg.

St. Patrick 14, Le Sueur 3

Bill Dunker was the winning pitcher at Le Sueur, working the first eight innings and striking out five for the Irish as they defeated the Braves, 14-3.

St. Patrick had two big innings, an eight-run fifth and a six-run ninth.

Craig Boser homered with a man on in the fifth and Matt Ambroz hit a two-run double in the ninth.

Boser totaled two hits and three runs driven in, and John Johnson and Matt Pexa had two hits and two RBI's each.

Le Sueur's three runs in the fourth came on a walk, singles by Dave Milam and Aaron Jerdee, an error and another single by Taylor Blomquist.

The line score: R H E

St. Patrick Irish........000 080 006 - 14 10 1

Le Sueur Braves......000 300 000 - 3 8 5

Bill Dunker, Joe Friedges (9) and Matt Pexa. David Rivers, Darren Culbert (5), Jamie Muluihill (5), Brad Walsh (8), Ryan Wolf (9) and Shea Roehrkasse.

Sunday, Aug. 6

St. Patrick 10, Arlington 0

The Irish won their third straight region playoff game, shutting out the A's at Arlington, 10-0.

Josh Simon was the winning hurler, allowing only four hits, allowing only a first inning double by Jon Werner and three other singles. He went the distance to get the win.

Mike Goldsmith led the Irish at the plate with four hits including a fourth-inning double. Wade Schu-knecht and Jeff Bjerke also hit doubles with Schuknecht's hit during a five-run fifth scoring a run. Bjerke doubled in the ninth and scored the final run on a Craig Boser single.

Adam Almich and Boser had three hits each and Schuknecht and Josh Simon had two hits apiece.

The line score: R H E

St. Patrick Irish.........002 051 011 - 10 15 1

Arlington A's............000 000 000 - 0 4 0

Josh Simon and Matt Pexa. Scott Dose, Tim Nesvig (5) and Mike Newman.

Brownton 4, Carver 0

Carver played at Brownton and the Bruins beat the Black Sox, 4-0, to drop Carver out of the tourney.

Union Hill 9, Le Sueur 1

The Bulldogs opened with a flurry, getting five first-inning hits, a walk and taking advantage of two errors to jump to a 7-0 lead enroute to a 9-1 win at Union Hill, which bumped the Braves out of the tournament.

Union Hill hit four doubles during the game. Rick Bell hit the first with one out in the first to start the seven-run burst. An error, walk, sacrifice fly by Jeff Bruder, single by Brian Giesen, another error, singles by Matt Sticha and Phil Giesen followed. Jesse Bastyr capped the hitting with a three-run double.

Bruder drove in two additional runs in the fourth with a two-run double after Bastyr boarded on an error and Adam Giesen and Dan Smith walked.

The Braves' lone run came in the sixth as Jamie Mulvihill, Jake Krier and Mike Milam hit singles and Shea Roehrkasse grounded out to second base, Muluihill scoring.

Brian Giesen hit the other Bulldog double when he led off the fifth inning.

Le Sueur's hits were all singles, with Rick Bell, the winning pitcher, allowing only one hit in the first five inning which he worked.

The line score: R H E

Le Sueur Braves.........000 001 000 - 1 5 4

Union Hill Bulldogs...700 200 00x - 9 7 1

Andy Krominga, Adam Sorenson (5) and Shea Roehrkasse. Rick Bell, Sean O'Neill (6) and John Masberg, Dan Novak (6).