Will Artz had the moment every kid dreams of when playing baseball in their backyard with the neighborhood kids in the middle of the summer: the coveted walk-off home run to win a championship game.

Artz wasn’t dreaming, as it came to life during Renfield County’s District 2 championship game on July 24 against top-seeded Burlington at Surrey. With his team down a run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Artz sent the Muskrats to the Class B Legion State Tournament with a 2-run home run to left field for a 5-4 victory over the Bulldogs.

Artz finished 2-for-4, but saved his best at-bat of the year to rescue Renfield County’s season and help the Muskrats play for a state title next week.

Burlington took a 4-3 in the top half of the ninth inning when Kyler Fisher roped a single up the middle to score Collin Abernathey with two outs.

It was a back-and-forth contest from the beginning, with the Muskrats jumping out to a 1-0 lead after one inning. Hunter Tolstad launched the first home run of the game to put Renfield County on the board first.

The Bulldogs countered with two runs in third off the bat of Fisher, whose double drove in Cale Roedocker and Owen Hanson to put the top seed in front for the moment, 2-1. A sacrifice fly from Renfield County’s Brody Nordmark tied the game in the fourth before Burlington reclaimed the lead on Fisher’s third RBI of the game.

Drayson Johnson delivered the Muskrats’ third long ball of the contest in the sixth.

Renfield County’s offense was led by the heart of its order, as its 2-5 hitters – Artz, Tolstad and Johnson combined to hit 6-for-10 with three home runs, four RBIs and four runs scored.

The Muskrats join Washburn, Cando, Linton-Ashley-Wishek, Langdon, Thompson, LaMoure and Park River in the state tournament field.