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One win away

Bishop Ryan tops Aggies 7-2, state berth in reach

Garrick Hodge/MDN Bishop Ryan pitcher Eli Stewart delivers a pitch to home plate during the Region 6 baseball tournament semifinals Monday at Corbett Field in Minot.

The bats were hot, pitcher Eli Stewart was on his game and No. 1-seeded Bishop Ryan used the extra outs No. 2-seeded Velva-Drake/Anamoose-Sawyer gave them to get one step closer to reaching its first state tournament berth since 2013.

The Lions defeated the Aggies 7-2 on Monday at Corbett Field to advance to the Region 6 championship. Both squads came in having won regional first-round matchups earlier in the day.

“We came out swinging, in both games,” Ryan coach Fred Nelson said. “We are hitting the ball very well right now, Eli (Stewart) went on the hill and threw a lot of strikes and our defense made plays.”

Ryan racked up 11 hits, but also benefited from seven VDAS errors.

“We didn’t make plays. It was not good,” VDAS coach Matt Weidler said. “Errors and things that aren’t in the box score like we have to go catch fly balls, communication in the infield and guys taking control. I thought we put decent swings on tonight, but Eli (Stewart) is a good pitcher and their guys made plays behind him.”

Garrick Hodge/MDN Bishop Ryan’s Joey Zeece (21) hits a ground ball during the Region 6 baseball tournament semifinals Monday at Corbett Field in Minot.

A triple by Stewart got the Lions off and running in the bottom of the first inning. Derek Bartsch powered a ball to the gap in left center, bouncing off the wall, to allow Stewart to trot home for the first run of the contest.

Ryan cranked up the offense again in the second inning for four more runs. On a rare sequence with two throwing errors, Cole Dauphinais reached third base on a dropped third strike. He later scored on a grounder that the infielder overthrew to home plate, instead of taking the easy out at first base.

“When you have that many errors, you have a zero percent chance of winning games,” Weidler said.

Also in the second frame, Stewart provided an RBI bloop hit to center field and a bases loaded double play scored another run.

Alex Burckhard extended the Lions lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with an RBI, two-out double down the left field line. He came through again in the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly, 7-0.

Stewart’s shutout bid came to an end in the top of the seventh, as Jonathan Thomas and Hayden Lee strung together RBI hits to erase the goose egg.

“Yeah, you always want the shutout I guess – if that’s an option at that point in the game,” Nelson said. “But, at the same time, we got the win. Right now, that’s what matters.”

Stewart struck out seven Aggies and gave up five hits.

“He locates his pitches so well,” Weidler said about Stewart. “We put good swings on them, but right at them. He gets ground balls and fly balls by just the way he locates his pitches. But, we knew what he was going to bring.”

No VDAS batter picked up multiple hits, while Stewart, Bartsch, Chris Sowitch and Luke Voorhies each notched two hits for Ryan.

“We are hitting the ball hard, even our outs,” Nelson said. “We had 11 hits, but that could have easily been 15-16 with some of those hard-hit baseballs right at their kids. We got to show up tomorrow and do the same thing. We haven’t won anything yet.”

Ryan will await the winner between VDAS and Surrey-ORCS in a loser out contest at 3 p.m. this evening. The Lions will have two cracks to beat the loser-out victor to reach the state tournament. The first game will follow the loser out game and the if needed second game would be played at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Lions cruise past Max-Garrison in the first round

To the reach the semifinal contest, Ryan knocked in 15 runs on 14 hits to topple No. 5 Garrison-Max, 15-2, in five innings. Chase Burke went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs to lead the way with Burckhard, Stewart, Sowitch each collecting two hits.

The Lions got the bulk of their scoring with a 10-run fourth inning.

Calvin Watkins pitched a five-inning complete game in the victory, giving up four hits and four walks.

Max-Garrison scored once in the top of the first and again in the second inning. Jaaron Kamp and Collin O’Grady picked up the RBIs for the Cossacks.

VDAS takes care of Surrey 15-4 in opener

In a similar fashion to how Ryan had no troubles with Max-Garrison, Velva-Drake/Anamoose-Sawyer also scored 15 runs in the other first-round contest to defeat No. 3 Surrey, 15-4, in five innings.

The Aggies piled on 12 runs in the fourth inning to break the game open.

Starting pitcher Nicholas Effertz went four innings on the mound, giving up all four opposing runs, but he made up for that with his bat. Effertz drove in five runs, going 2-for-3.

Thomas also finished with a pair hits, and Aaron Dean, Seth Fahy and Colton Frankl each provided two RBIs. The Aggies drew 11 walks and notched seven hits.

For Surrey, they had the lead twice at 1-0 in the top of the second and again at 4-2 in the top of third inning before giving up the devastating 12-run inning.

Mitchell Seopa went 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. Conner Dyke also added two RBIs in the defeat.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

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