Jun. 14—ALEXANDRIA — After starting the season with an ugly loss to Moorhead, the Bemidji American Legion baseball team got its first three wins of the young season on Friday and Saturday.
In an Alexandria tournament, the Centaurs romped both Minnewaska and Tri-City Blue 9-1 on Friday, both five inning contests. They faced Sartell on Saturday and eked out a 4-3 victory in extra innings, reaching the first place game against Alexandria on Sunday. Bemidji would fall just short, however, losing 4-2, taking second in the tournament.
On Friday against Minnewaska, Bemidji scored one run off of a Gunner Ganske RBI double in the first inning before exploding with a six-run second inning. After James Garrison stole home, Brennen Brower hit an RBI double to score two more runs to extend the lead 4-0. Brower would score on a wild pitch, while two more runs would score from a Garrison single to make it 7-0 by the end of the inning.
The Centaurs would add two more in the third inning before giving up their only run in the fifth, securing the 9-1 victory. Heaton Brodina and Lawson Berg each pitched two innings, while Brower and Jack Zellman split the final inning.
The team would have similar results against Tri-City Blue. It scored three runs taking advantage of TCB’s mistakes in the first inning before adding on in the third from a Garrison RBI double, leading 4-0. Bemidji would take advantage of TCB errors to score three more runs in the fourth inning and two in the fifth to win 9-1.
Ganske would give up TCB’s only run, which was unearned, in the third inning before Brower took over the rest of the way.
Saturday against Sartell would be a dramatic game that would go into extra innings. Sartell would lead 2-0 after the third inning before the game entered into a stalemate. Still trailing 2-0 by the bottom of the seventh inning, Brodina hit a massive two-run home run to send the game into extras.
Sartell would score one run in the eighth inning off of a sacrifice fly, leading 3-2 heading to the bottom of the inning. With their backs against the wall, the Centaurs would tie it 3-3 from a Kash Rasmus single, bringing up Ganske. He would walk off Sartell with an RBI single of his own to send Bemidji to the first place game.
On Sunday against Alexandria, the Centaurs held a 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. Alexandria would score three runs off of starter Brodina to lead 4-2, putting down Bemidji 1-2-3 in the seventh inning to clinch the victory.
Bemidji 9, Minnewaska 1 (F/5)
BMJ 162 00 — 9-7-1
MNW 000 01 — 1-2-0
WP: Brodina (2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K)
LP: Gruber (5 IP, 7 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 6 BB, 2 K)
Bemidji 9, Tri-City Blue 1 (F/5)
BMJ 301 32 — 9-6-2
TCB 001 00 — 1-3-4
WP: Ganske (2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K)
LP: Joseph (4 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 0 K)
Bemidji 4, Sartell 3
SAR 002 000 01 — 3-8-0
BMJ 000 000 22 — 4-6-1
WP: Berg (4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K)
LP: Fish (7.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K)
Alexandria 4, Bemidji 2
BMJ 001 001 0 — 2-5-1
ALX 010 003 X — 4-5-1
WP: Marek (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K)
LP: Brodina (5.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K)
