Survive and advance
Metros survive marathon gameBy CRAIG HAUPERT, Staff Writer chaupert@minotdailynews.com
Article Photos
LAMOURE - A broken, somewhat improvised play put the Minot Metros in position to defeat Makoti in Wednesday's first-round game of the North Dakota State American Legion Class B Baseball Tournament.
Metros short stop Alex Fornshell narrowly escaped a force out at second base and instead of stopping he made his way to third.
"I took a little peak at third and noticed nobody was there so I kept going," Fornshell said. "You've got to make your own luck sometimes."
Fornshell reached safely and a couple pitches later Josh Melom batted him home to score the winning run in the Metros' 3-2 12th-inning marathon at Townsend Field.
"I'm just glad it's over," Fornshell said.
The Metros will play LaMoure today and are fortunate to be doing so.
Minot stranded five of its runners in innings 8-11, four of whom were in scoring position, nearly spoiling two strong performances from pitchers Ben Magnuson and Jordan Rubbelke.
"It wasn't the prettiest win we've had," Metros head coach Travis Smith said. "We just mentally were not there. Luckily we fought long, hard innings and our pitching is what really took us to the end of the game."
Starter Magnuson allowed five hits and two runs (one earned) while striking out four in 9 1/3 innings. Rubbelke closed it out, striking out six and allowing no hits in 2 2/3.
For Makoti it was an especially tough loss considering starter Drew Drosdal gave up just five hits and struck out four in nine innings.
"We kind of went to the well one too many times," Makoti head coach Orville Drosdal said. "The last 3-4 innings they seemed to get a runner in scoring position early. We managed to battle back and did a nice job on defense, but couldn't quite get it done."
The Mavericks held a 2-0 lead through three innings, scoring on a Jordan Gieson single in the first and a third baseman error in the third.
The Metros tied the game in the fourth on a one-run single by Rubbelke and a sacrifice fly by Kris Winkels.
Caleb Karna relieved Drosdal in the 10th and gave up one hit while walking three. Makoti plays the loser of LaMoure/West Fargo Aces in a loser-out game today.
Using Rubbelke to close out the game was a necessary evil in that it used up an appearance and 2 2/3 of his total allowed innings.
"It doesn't help us at all," Smith said. "When you're in a tournament you have to get games done quick otherwise you start digging into your pitching staff. Unfortunately this one went too long and so it does hurt us with innings."
Casselton 1,
Grafton 0
Casselton's James Knoll scored the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning when Mike Rose reached first on a throwing error pushing Casselton past Grafton 1-0 in the opening round of the North Dakota State American Legion Class B Baseball Tournament.
Knoll finished 1-for-3 with a triple and Lex Lunde batted 2-for-3 with a double for Casselton, which had six hits.
Casselton starter Beau Sinner struck out four and allowed five hits in a complete-game shutout.
Grafton had five hits and made two errors and got a solid 6 2/3 innings from Alex Martinez who took the loss.
