BROOKINGS – The Bandits beat Renner 12-8 in a Legion baseball game Tuesday evening at Bob Shelden Field.
Brookings took control with back-to-back four-run innings, grabbing a 12-5 lead through five.
Tanner Shepardson pitched six innings in earning the win. He gave up five runs on six hits and four walks with a pair of strikeouts.
Shepardson began the decisive mid-game rally with a walk to open the bottom of the fourth. Brock Luze followed with a single.
Tyler Kreutner’s one-out RBI double knotted the score at 5-5.
Luze scored on a wild pitch. Rhett Zelinsky reached on a dropped third strike with two away, as Kreutner sprinted home on the play. After Ryan McMacken drew a base on balls, Zelinsky scampered home on another wild pitch to put Post 74 on top 8-5.
With one out in the fifth, Shepardson singled and Luze walked. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch.
Preston Helmbolt followed with an RBI single, before Kreutner was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Jacob Schoon stroked a run-scoring hit and Zelinsky hit into a fielder’s choice to plate Helmbolt. McMacken, who ended up 2-for-3, tacked on an RBI single to push the margin to 12-5.
Post 307 closed out the scoring with three runs in the top of the seventh. Quentin Evers and Justin Aldrich tallied consecutive RBI doubles with one out, and Daulton Vanderloo added a run-scoring single with two away.
Renner found the scoreboard first with a three-spot in the opening frame.
Trey Rogers drew a leadoff walk and Peyton Garbers was hit by a pitch. Nick Hoekstra came through with an RBI single and Evers plated Garbers with a groundout. After Aldrich walked, CJ Stukel drove in Hoekstra with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
Brookings put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the first.
Zelinsky walked and McMacken singled, and both players advanced on a wild pitch.
Parker Rykhus’ two-run single to left pulled the home team within 3-2.
The Royals went up 4-2 after Hoekstra lifted the third pitch of the third inning just over the fence in left field for a home run.
Kreutner walked and stole second to get the bottom of the second going.
Schoon, who ended up 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs, followed with a run-scoring double. Zelinski walked and Rykhus hit into a fielder’s choice, which allowed Schoon to get to third.
Schoon made it home following a throwing error to tie things up at 4-4.
Renner took its final lead in the top of the fourth.
Vanderloo walked and Mason Grudeua singled and, with one out, Rogers was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Garbers brought in Vanderloo with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4 in favor of the visitors.
Kreutner scored three times for the Bandits.
For the Royals, Evers was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a pair of RBIs. Hoekstra went 2-for-3, including the homer, with two RBIs and three runs scored. Aldrich finished 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and the RBI.
Kobe Lien, the second of three Post 307 pitchers, entered to begin the fourth frame and took the loss after giving up seven runs – six earned – on six hits and three walks with four wild pitches and two strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings.
The Royals topped the Bandits 12-0 – allowing just two hits – in the first meeting this season June 12 in Renner.
Brookings (3-10) plays host to Brandon Valley on Friday at 6 p.m. and Aberdeen on Saturday at 5 p.m.
BROOKINGS 12, RENNER 8
Renner 301 100 3 – 8 9 2
Brookings 202 440 x – 12 9 1
Logan Ymker, Kobe Lien (4), Daulton Vanderloo (5) and Trey Rogers; Tanner Shepardson, Jacob Schoon (7) and Schoon, Shepardson (7). W – Shepardson. L – Lien. 2B: R, Justin Aldrich 2, Quentin Evers 2; B, Schoon, Tyler Kreutner. HR: R, Nick Hoekstra.
Register photos: Above, Brookings third baseman Ryan McMacken tags out Renner’s Quentin Evers, who was trying to stretch a double, during the third inning of the Bandits’ 12-8 defeat of the Royals in a Legion baseball game Tuesday evening at Bob Shelden Field. Below, Post 74’s Parker Rykhus lines a two-run single to left field with two outs in the bottom of the first inning.
