Jul. 23—BEMIDJI — Wyatt Tverstol did a little bit of everything on Wednesday night for the Bemidji American Legion baseball team.
Typically, he can be found on the pitcher’s mound. The Centaurs’ ace was given the ball to commence Post 14’s Sub-State 12 Tournament on Wednesday night at the BSU Baseball Field against No. 8 Detroit Lakes, throwing three innings without allowing a hit and striking out six batters.
Tverstol picked up a bat in the bottom of the third inning as well, lacing a double to right field and later scoring a run. He then moved to first base for the final two innings, making an acrobatic play to record an out in the fifth in top-seeded Bemidji’s 20-0 win over Detroit Lakes.
“You know, I definitely tried,” Tverstol said with a laugh. “Yeah, it was a good day.
“I feel great right now. I just added a new pitch, and it was working really well for me today.”
J.D. Wood came out of the bullpen to complete the combined no-hitter in five innings. It also helped keep Tverstol’s pitch count in check.
“It’s big,” head coach Otto Grimm said. “We had a plan going in to keep guys’ pitch counts under a certain number. We got up bigger than we were expecting, so we got a guy in there who typically doesn’t pitch.
“Both guys threw it over the plate and we played good defense behind them. It helps when you’re hitting the crap out of the ball.”
The damage was done in the second inning. Post 14 plated 18 runs, 13 of them before recording an out. Kobe Brown, Brennen Brower, Gunner Ganske, Lawson Berg, James Garrison, Kash Rasmus, Jack Zellmann and Wood each recorded at least one run-scoring hit in the second frame.
“The bats came alive,” Grimm said. “It was a good day to get the bats going and get some confidence going into the weekend. I thought the boys played with intensity and had good energy. We had a lot of fun. All in all, it was a good day of clean baseball for us.”
Zellmann and Wood each had three-hit games, with Zellmann recording a double and a triple. Rasmus was 2-for-3 with five RBIs to push Bemidji to 23-4 this summer.
“We’re not new to winning,” Tverstol said. “We have a lot of confidence right now. Obviously, when you beat the brakes off of a team like that, you’ll feel really good about yourself. We just have to stay locked in.”
The double-elimination Sub-State 12 Tournament already saw three of the four lower seeds advance in the winner’s side of the bracket on Wednesday. Seventh-seeded Perham upset No. 2 Fergus Falls, while No. 6 Brainerd beat third-seeded Alexandria. Fifth-seeded Moorhead stormed back to beat No. 4 East Grand Forks, the defending champions.
“At the end of the day, the pitcher has to throw it over the plate, the batter has to put it in play and somebody has to throw it, Grimm said. “Weird things can happen in baseball, as they often do. You just have to play your game, compete every pitch and every inning. The chips will fall where they fall. The district is deep, though, as we saw today.”
Bemidji will play against Moorhead at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday in the second round, with the winner advancing to the semifinals.
“You have to bring your best every game and compete every pitch,” Grimm said. “As long as we try our hardest and have fun, whatever happens, happens. I have faith in our guys that our best can match up with anyone in this tournament. I like our chances going forward.”
Bemidji 20, Detroit Lakes 0 (F/5)
DL 000 00 — 0-0-4
BEM 0 18 0 00 — 20-16-1
WP: Tverstol (3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K)
LP: Hatch (1.1 IP, 13 H, 18 R, 15 ER, 5 BB, 1 K)
