He couldn’t have been any happier with how his final at-bat of the opening game played out.

The Metros catcher capped off a seventh-inning rally, delivering a two-run single with the bases loaded to give Minot a 9-8 victory over Washburn in both teams’ tournament opener on Friday at Corbett Field. Balas finished the game 3-for-4 with three RBIs, as the Metros (14-6) twice came back from multiple runs down.

“Kind of made me a little upset, grounding into a double play my first at-bat, so I just took that anger out the rest of the way through and got on base the rest of the time,” Balas said.

Trailing 8-6 entering their final plate appearance, Brady Vigestad drew a 1-out walk and a double by Ty Iverson put runners on second and third. TJ Hjelmstad brought them both home with a two-run single to left to tie the game. After an intentional walk to Brock Thompson, Balas ended it with a single over a drawn-in infield.

Mike Kraft/MDN Washburn shortstop Alex Retterath makes a throw to first during the Souris River Slugfest against the Metros on Friday at Corbett Field.

“I just love watching them play and they don’t give up,” Metros coach Craig Schmich said. “If we can just grind it out for seven innings you never know what’s going to happen. If we can just put some pressure on some guys and play until that last at bat is finally made, we’ll be in a pretty good spot and that’s what they did today.”

Despite the high-pressure scenario, Balas was calm and collected.

“I wasn’t really feeling any pressure,” Balas said. “They walked my guy ahead of me and I was just ready to go. Bases loaded, all I had to do was put the ball over the infield. The infield was in so I just did my job, put it over and got the job done.”

Minot’s resiliency was on full display earlier in the game as well after surrendering the game’s first three runs in the top of the fourth inning. And it all came with two outs. Seven straight Minot batters reached base safely after recording their second out and six came around to score to put the Metros ahead 6-4.

The Metros loaded the bases without even having to lift the bat off their shoulders. A pair of walks and a hit batsman led to the first of two 2-run singles by Hjelmstad in the game. Thompson drew the third walk of the inning and Balas delivered an RBI single to close the deficit to 4-3. Remington Anderson put the Metros in front with a two-RBI single to left. Balas came around to score on a wild pitch to cap off the two-out rally.

“We’re resilient,” Balas said. “We just keep battling throughout this whole season. We’ve had a very good season to start and we just try to keep working on that. We were just resilient through that. We put up a six spot and didn’t score again until the last inning. We just did our job and got the win.”

Washburn (12-5) didn’t go quietly, and plated runs in all three innings following Minot’s first rally. After getting a run back in the fifth, Washburn reclaimed the lead with a 3-run sixth inning. The first three batters of the inning reached base safely and would eventually come around to score, including Jack Retterath, who registered an RBI bunt single to score Hunter Wolff. Retterath would add another RBI in the seventh on a sacrifice fly to center field.

The Metros used three pitchers in their tournament opener. Kayden Danielson got the starting nod and went 5.1 innings. Jace Price came on in relief in the sixth and pitched another 1.1 innings before Owen Sundahl got the final out in the seventh and the subsequent victory.

Being the tournament hosts, there is a bit of pressure in performing well, believes Schmich.

“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little bit of pressure,” Schmich said. “When you host your own tournament, you would like to get to the championship. Just playing our game and doing what we do is the biggest thing for us.”

EAST GRAND FORKS 6, MINOT METROS 1

Minot was unable to produce any last-inning magic against East Grand Forks in their second contest of the tournament, which followed immediately after its thrilling victory over Washburn.

The Metros lone run came off the bat of Gavin King, who launched a solo home run over the left-field fence with two outs in the fourth inning. The Metros managed six hits, but were unable to produce runs against East Grand Forks pitcher Chay Boespflug. The East Grand Forks pitcher went the distance for the victory, striking out five and allowing just a single base runner to step on third base.

“That’s a really good baseball team over there,” Schmich said. “They swung it well. They came up with the timely hits and that’s where we fell short. They only outhit us by one, but a couple early walks that led to some base hits at the end for them and that’s what the moral of the story is. They scored four in the third and we just weren’t able to come back. Our kids didn’t quit. They fought to the very end and put bats on balls. We had guys in scoring position, we just didn’t come up with the timely hit on that game.”

No Minot batter had more than one hit and King and Sundahl were the only ones to produce an extra-base hit off of Boespflug.

“We had pitching from the start,” East Grand Forks coach Ajay Kofstad said. “Chay got out on the mound and he threw strikes. That’s what he does best. The kid is strong between the ears and he did what he does best and just competed today.”

East Grand Forks (12-1) broke the game open with a four-run third inning, bringing all nine batters to the plate in the frame. All four runs and all three hits in the inning came with two outs, flipping the script on the Metros from their game prior. Mason Frieze delivered an RBI double for the game’s first run and Grant Kovar doubled in two of his own and then touched home after a two-base throwing error landed in the East Grand Forks dugout.

“Our biggest thing is to stay disciplined,” Kofstad said. “We’ve faced adversity all year and when we play with a lead like that, we just need to hold it and continue to play good, clean baseball.”

East Grand Forks added two more insurance runs in the sixth, both via sacrifice flies with the bases loaded.

Mason Ulland had the lone multi-hit game for either team, finishing 2-for-2 with a single, double and a pair of walks.

East Grand Forks closed out the first day of the tournament with a 12-1 victory over the Minot 26ers to put itself in prime position to advance to Sunday’s championship game. But prior to Sunday, the Metros will play Burlington at 2:30 p.m. and the 26ers at 5 p.m., while East Grand Forks will play Washburn at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.