Late night blast
Klabunde, Tonini lift Magi baseball past Williston in WDA first round
The sun was setting as the first pitch was thrown between the No. 3-seeded Minot High School baseball team and No. 6-seeded Williston. Pushed back nearly two and a half hours from the scheduled 7 p.m. start time, due to the other West Region tournament first round games going into extra innings, the home supporters were anxious to see the Magi take the field at Corbett Field.
Minot High didn’t disappoint under the lights. Behind a Lofton Klabunde clutch home run and shutout performance from pitcher Carson Tonini, the Magi squeaked by Williston 1-0.
“It’s tough to beat a team four times like we did against them in the regular season,” MHS coach Pete Stenberg said. “Then, to come back and do it again… They have seen Carson (Tonini) now three times this season, so Carson did an excellent job out on the hill and Lofton (Klabunde) came through with a nice big hit.”
The low-scoring affair might have had something to with not being able to adjust to the stadium lighting, but that didn’t seem to faze Klabunde.
“I think it was kind of tough for the hitters to see, for both teams under the lights,” Stenberg said. “Not a lot of offensive production, but (Klabunde) had a big hit and he said he was seeing the ball today. Evidently he was.”
Klabunde launched the game-winning solo shot in the second inning. Swinging at the first pitch he saw, the ball jolted off his bat and looked like a missile as it headed out to left center field.
“I was looking for a fastball high and in,” Klabunde said. “That’s the pitch I like and I put a good swing on it. It was unreal. Hard to hold back a smile, especially when your teammates are there to congratulate you.”
Klabunde got all the way to first base only to realize the ball had landed behind the fence and he could jog the rest of the way home.
“When I rounded first (base), coach said something,” and that’s the moment Klabunde knew he had hit a home run. “I didn’t really watch it.”
With the slim one-run lead, Tonini and the Magi defense behind him took care of the rest. Sometimes it was Tonini bailing out the defense after an error and other times it was the defense stepping up by getting outs on bang-bang plays at first base.
Both rose to the occasion when called upon, which provided the excitement and drama during the nail-biting 1-0 pitcher’s duel between Tonini and Baily Bethke.
“The pressure and having an atmosphere like this is good for baseball,” Tonini said. “I love it, we all love it. It’s good to come out and play for a crowd.”
Tonini tossed seven scoreless innings, giving up four hits and a walk. He struck out eight batters, including two in the top of the sixth inning with the tying runner on base. He also recorded the final three outs of the game on a grounder back to the mound, then covered first base on a grounder that pulled first baseman Klabunde off the bag and sealed the victory by striking out George Callan.
“I kept the ball low and threw strikes,” Tonini said. “(Catcher) Creighton (Rudolph) blocked the balls and we made plays when we needed to.”
Besides Klabunde’s home run, the Magi’s only other hit came in the fifth inning on a single by Broden Wunderlich. The Midgets notched four hits, but failed to generate any run production.
The Magi advance to play No. 7 Jamestown in the second round at 6:30 p.m. this evening at Corbett Field. The Blue Jays upset No. 2-seeded Bismarck Century, 1-0, on Thursday in the first round.
“We split with them throughout the season and got to watch them again today,” Stenberg said about Jamestown. “They come down to a one-run ballgame with Century, so it should be two pretty good teams going after each other tomorrow.”