Cubs win pitchers duel
Overbo, Crosby beat Renville County in Section 6By CHRIS BIERI, Staff Writer cbieri@minotdailynews.com
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WATFORD CITY - Ian Anderson gave up just one hit.
That was all Brock Overbo and the Crosby Cubs needed.
Unlikely hero Isaac Jacobs cracked a solo home run in the top of the sixth inning to lift Crosby over top seed Renville County Wednesday at the Section 6 Tournament at American Legion Baseball Park.
Jacobs homer was the only hit allowed by Anderson, the Renville County starting pitcher. Overbo, the starter for the Cubs, made it stand up. He allowed just a third-inning single to the Muskrats Richard Cormier and never allowed a runner to reach second base.
"They threw strikes. Holy smokes did they throw strikes," Cubs head coach Monte Ellingson said. "It keeps the defense in the game. No errors, one hit apiece. There wasn't much action."
Overbo was successful by changing speeds and mixing up his pitches.
"He's been like that for the last three games," Ellingson said. "He got hit hard when we went to the Metrodome. He realized he can't overpower everyone."
Overbo finished with just six strikeouts, but consistently got the Muskrats off balance.
"It definitely was (fun)," Overbo said. "Ian and I are pretty good friends, so it was fun to face him. My curve ball was on today. It's the best I've every thrown my curve and my location on my fastball was really good."
Anderson was literally unhittable throughout the middle innings. He struck out nine straight from the final out of the second inning through the second batter of the fifth. That batter, Tanner Wolter, reached when RC catcher Micah Bender couldn't handle the pitch in the dirt. Anderson walked the next hitter, but Wolter was thrown out trying to steal third and Anderson got another strikeout, his third of the inning, to end the threat.
"Each guy had a one-hitter," RC head coach Matt Titus said. "Their one-hitter was just a little better than ours. You have to give Overbo credit, he threw a heck of a game."
Anderson finished with 11 Ks.
Crosby didn't garner their hit off Anderson until the sixth inning.
Jacobs, a 13-year old entering the eighth grade in the fall, led off the inning batting in the No. 9 hole.
Anderson got ahead 0-2, but Jacobs drove the next pitch, a high fastball, over the center field fence for the only run of the game.
"I guess (that was as unlikely as you could get)," Ellingson said. "A 13-year old batting 9th. He swings hard, but it was surprising, no doubt."
No one was more surprised than Jacobs.
"I was shocked," he said. "I didn't stop sprinting until I rounded first base."
Titus said as the pitcher's duel progressed, his hitters were guilty of trying to end it with one swing instead of working at-bats and trying to get runners on base.
"We just put ourselves in such bad spots," he said. "We never got a leadoff hitter on and we got behind in a lot of counts. We have some guys who can bunt, but we just didn't give ourselves opportunities. They did a heck of a job setting up their defense. I guess you're just looking for that spark and sooner or later it's going to come. Today it didn't."
RC takes on the winner of this morning's Garrison/Ray game in loser action today at 3 p.m.
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Makoti 6, Garrison 1
Temperatures neared 90 at Wednesday's first round of the Section 6 tournament, but it was Makoti's Jaren Enockson who was really bringing the heat.
Enockson struck out 13 batters as Makoti topped Garrison 6-1.
"He's kind of sneaky fast," Makoti head coach Orville Drosdal said. "He hides the ball well. Today he threw strikes, which is what we want from him."
Makoti held just a 2-0 lead until the top of the sixth inning, when they exploded for four runs with the help of a two-run homer from Trevor Baker.
"Definitely, it gave us a little breathing room," Drosdal said. "We were thrilled to death to get two on the board and when we got four, it put the pressure on them."
The last time the two teams met, just about a week ago, Garrison crushed Makoti 23-6.
"That was bad," Enockson said of the previous loss. "We're not a great hitting team, but today everybody really stepped up."
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Watford City 9, Ray 4
The bottom of the third was key for Watford City. The Walleye broke open a 3-2 game with five runs in that inning to take control. Ben Haugeberg was solid on the mound for Watford City.
Haugeberg got out of a number of jams in throwing a complete game. He struck out 10 and stranded 11, including leaving the bases loaded in both the second and sixth innings.
Trey Jacobson had a pair of doubles and both Haugeberg and Nick Liebel scored twice for the Walleye, who will play Makoti today at noon.
Ryan Perdue and Ray starter Dillon Solem each had a pair of hits. Ray outhit Watford City 9-6, but also had three errors to zero for the Walleye.
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Crosby 7, Tioga 4
Crosby overcame a shaky start to top Tioga in the opening round. The Cubs gave up two in the top of the first inning, but fired back with two in the bottom of that inning with a Brock Overbo home run. Overbo was an offensive dynamo for the Cubs.
He was 3 for 3 on the day with the two-run homer and a pair of RBI singles.
Austin Dhuyvetter got the start on the mound for Crosby and overcame three Cubs' errors to get the complete-game win. He limited Tioga to just four hits in the game.
The game was tied 3-3 after three innings, but the Cubs continued to score, plating a run in both the fourth and fifth and adding two insurance runs in the sixth.
