The Minot Metros’ first tournament of the season started strong and ended strong, with two close losses sprinkled in the middle.

The result was a seventh-place finish following a 10-1 victory over Renville County in six innings on Sunday, June 14, at the Cross-River Classic in Bismarck. The Metros avenged an earlier loss against the Muskrats, which also happened to be their first.

“Obviously, not the weekend we wanted it to be,” Minot Metros coach Craig Schmich said. “We wanted to be competing for a championship, but at the end of the day we’re learning our team and starting to figure things out. It’s early in the season and being able to play an early season tournament and get some high-pressure situations in early that we can’t really simulate when it comes to practice and some of those non-conference games. I think it was a good overall weekend for us.”

Renville scored the first run of the game before the Metros responded with 10 unanswered over the course of the final five innings. Grady Weppler came one batter shy of tossing a no-hitter. Renville’s Hunter Tolstad singled to right with two outs to break up the no-hit bid. Weppler finished with 12 strikeouts.

Minot’s bats gave Weppler plenty of run support. The Metros broke out for five runs in the second. Brody Johnson got the Metros on the board with a single to left, scoring Ben Hedberg. Owen Sundahl cleared the bases with a three-run double and Ty Iverson followed with an RBI double of his own.

Johnson doubled home Hedberg in the third as part of a 3-for-3 day at the plate, including three RBIs and two runs scored.

Minot (8-5) tacked on four more runs in the fifth. With two outs and nobody on base, Weppler got the offense going with a triple. Hedberg drew a walk before Carter Bush, Johnson, and Owen Meyer delivered back-to-back-to-back run-scoring hits. The bottom three in the batting order – Bush, Johnson and Meyer – combined to go 6-for-8 with six RBIs and four runs scored.

All 10 runs were scored with two outs.

“The bottom of the lineup has been helping us out big time this year and I told some of our guys that we should start innings with two outs most of the time because that seems like when we start to score most of our runs this year,” Schmich said. “The fact that this is a resilient bunch and they find ways to score runners no matter how many outs there are or what the situation is.”

The Metros found themselves in the seventh-place game as a result of a pair of close losses the day before. Minot opened the day with a 5-2 loss to the West Fargo Rattlers. West Fargo scored four runs in the top of the third, which proved to be the difference.

Already leading 1-0 entering the third inning, the Rattlers plated runs on a wild pitch and a passed ball, while getting RBI singles from Diego Cuellar and Jaeden Bye to grab a 5-0 lead.

“That third inning kind of got out of hand for us,” Schmich said. “There were probably a couple of plays that should have been made and who knows if that was the winning or losing deciding factor for us. We just have to find a way to stop the bleeding and find a way to limit that big inning. That happens at this age and that happens at any age.”

Kam Ydstie and Isaac Buffington combined to strike out 10 Metros while giving up two runs on six hits.

Iverson and Brady Vigested each had a pair of hits for the Metros.

The Metros were back on the field later that day and would need extra innings against the Fargo Post 400 Comets. The Comets scored two runs in the top of the ninth and got out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom half to hold on for a 6-5 victory over the Metros in nine innings.

The Comets tied the game 3-3 in the sixth to later force extra innings. Fargo Post 400 took a 4-3 lead in the eighth, but Minot was able to scratch across a run to extend the game. Hedberg plated Weppler with a sac fly to center.

The Comets again grabbed the lead in extra innings, this time a 6-4 advantage in the ninth. Tucker Kosen and Cam Sveet connected on RBI singles.

Meyer brought Minot within a run with an RBI single to score Bush. The Metros loaded the bases with two outs, but a fly out to deep left ended the game.

Sundahl went 3-for-3 with an RBI and Bush and Meyer each had two-hit games. Meyer also had two RBIs.

Johnson pitched into the ninth, allowing three runs on seven hits, striking out 10.

The Bismarck Reps won the tournament title over West Fargo. Twelve teams participated in the tournament.

The Metros travel to play Surrey on Wednesday, June 17, at 5:30 p.m.