DRS season enters final three weekends

New Market became the first Dakota-Rice-Scott League team to clinch a firstround playoff bye with a pair of wins, and the rest of the league battled to keep pace as the regular season winds down.

There are three weekends remaining in the season, which concludes July 22. Four league teams will get byes into the Region 3C tournament, while the eight remaining teams will play for the final four spots.

Sunday’s action featured a pair of walk-off wins, for St. Patrick and St. Benedict, while earlier in the week big innings were the key in onesided wins, including an 18- run inning for St. Patrick in a win over Veseli and an eightrun eighth inning for Montgomery in a win over Shakopee. St. Benedict also had a ninth-inning rally to win a game at Faribault. Tanner Oakes had the game-winning RBI in both of the Saints’ wins.

New Market (17-1) holds a four-game lead over St. Patrick (13-5) in the league standings. New Prague and Faribault are tied at 9-7 for third place, seven games behind the Muskies.

Sunday’s rain postponed two games, Lonsdale at Shakopee and New Prague at Webster.

Last week’s results:

Tue., June 26 Orioles 12, Coyotes 2 New Prague pitcher Nathan Sprouls struck out 15 batters in six innings to get the win as the Orioles defeated Shakopee 12-2. James Fuerniss and Eric Wagner both had multiple hits and RBIs. For the Coyotes Jesse Nystrom had two hits and Alec Pauly had a hit and two stolen bases.

Wed., June 27 Irish 23, Warriors 4 A close, competitive game went awry when St. Patrick put up an 18-run seventh inning, icing a 23-4 victory. Jack Friedges was 4-for-5 including two doubles, walked, stole four bases, scored four runs and had four RBIs. Kyle Rhodus was 3-for-4, drove in three, and stole two bases. Will Walsh was 1-for-2 with a two-run double and a stolen base. He finished with three RBIs. In the game, the Irish drew 13 walks, and six batters were hit by pitches, topped off by 13 hits. The team tallied 20 RBIs on the night. Josh Simon improved his record to 7-0 on the season. The score was 5-4 through six innings. For Veseli, Cody Shimota was 3- for-4 and stole a base. Matt Perkinson was 2-for-3, which included an RBI double. Ben Doerr hit a two-run home run, which at the time, tied the game, and finished with three RBIs.

Mallards 8, Coyotes 0 Montgomery broke open a scoreless game with eight runs in the eighth inning to defeat Shakopee 8-0. Robbie Marshall started for the Mallards going seven shutout innings and picked up the win. Ted Christian closed up the game, throwing two shutout innings. Pat Lloyd keyed the Mallards’ big inning with a bases-loaded double that scored three runs.

Mudcats 4, Aces 2 Lonsdale tried to rally from a 4-0 deficit in the ninth inning but came up short, losing to Prior Lake 4-2. The Mudcats had three hits from Jake Lehrer, including two doubles, and two hits each from BJ Benz and Jonny Houston, including a solo homer. Ben Morrison pitched six innings and allowed three hits while striking out five to get the win. Houston picked up a save. Daniel Turner had two hits for Lonsdale, but he also took the loss on the mound, allowing four runs in four innings of work.

Fri., June 29 Bulldogs 13, Orioles 6 Eric Bisek had three hits, including a home run, and drove in six runs to lead Union Hill past New Prague 13-6. Jeff Dietz also had three hits and three RBIs and Adam Giesen and Nathan Berg added two hits each. Nathan Berg pitched 5-1/3 innings and got the win, with Matt Beckius and Conrad Masberg pitching in relief. Saints 4, Lakers 2 The St. Benedict Saints defeated the Faribault Lakers 4- 2 in Faribault. Tanner Oakes struck out 16 batters in the complete game win. Oakes singled home Paul Hentges and Jeremy Heitkamp to break a 2-2 tie in the ninth inning. Hentges, Scott Eischens and Jon Huss had two hits each for the Saints. Faribault had an RBI sac fly from Dylan Valentyn. Jake Stocker and Austin Rendler has two hits each

Sat., June 30 Muskies 5, Mudcats 4 New Market came back from a 4-0 deficit to defeat Prior Lake 5-4 in New Market Saturday. The Mudcats took the lead with two hits from Cole Bjorge, including a double, and doubles from Jake Lehrer and Corbin Cross. The Muskies made it 4-1 with a run in the sixth and scored two each in the seventh and eighth to take the win. They managed just five hits, but made them count. Alex Lindstrom doubled and scored a run, RBIs came from Dan Phyle, Nate Rost and Kyle Henkemeyer. Riley Ahern started and went 6-1/2 innings, allowing four runs. Derek Bergstrom got the win, pitching 2-2/3 scoreless innings. Lucas Pumper started and took the loss for Prior Lake.

Sun., July 1 Lakers 6, Irish 0 Faribault won the first game of a doubleheader over St. Patrick, 6-0. The Lakers scored three in the first and three more in the fourth, and rode the pitching of Jack Helgeson, who scattered eight hits and struck out seven for a complete-game shutout. Mitch Johnson had three hits and Joey Grote and Blake Langerud had two each for Fairbualt. St. Patrick had two hits each from Matt Pexa and Ryan Friedges. Collin Denk started and took the loss, with Bill Dunker pitching in relief.

Irish 3, Lakers 2 In the nightcap, St. Patrick’s Jack Friedges hit a two-out double to drive in pinch-runner Kevin Pexa as St. Patrick had a walk-off 3-2 win over Faribault. Jack Friedges and Ryan Friedges each had two hits for the Irish. Faribault had just four hits, one of them an RBI single by Matt Lane. Lane started for the Lakers and went eight innings, allowing one run on five hits and striking out 11. Tyler Francis took the loss. Zach Seurer started and went six innings for St. Patrick, with Josh Simon pitching four innings of onehit ball and striking out four for the win.

Muskies 6, Bulldogs 2 New Market defeated Union Hill 6-2 Sunday to solidify their lead in the DRS. Kyle Bergstrom had two home runs and Nick Rost had one. Bergstrom and Kyle Henkemeyer had two hits each. Nate Rost got the win, pitching a complete game. He allowed six hits and struck out 10. Eric Bisek had two hits, including a solo home run, for Union Hill. Dan Feneis pitched eight innings and struck out six in taking the loss.

Saints 6, Mudcats 5 Tanner Oakes had a oneout single to drive in Jeremy Heitkamp with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth as St. Benedict defeated Prior Lake 6-5. Mitchell Martin had a two-run homer for the Saints and Oakes had two hits on the afternoon. Heitkamp was the winning pitcher, going 3-1/3 innings in relief and striking out three. Prior Lake’s Jake Lehrer had a home run and scored two runs, while Jonny Houston had two hiys for the Mudcats. Jake Schmidt took the loss in relief for Prior Lake. Topher Rose pitched eight innings and allowed just four hits.