MITCHELL – The Flandreau Cardinals won their opening game in the Class B State Amateur Baseball Tournament on Sunday. The Cardinals took down the Menno Mad Frogs, 7-2, at Cadwell Park in Mitchell in the opener.
Flandreau scored runs in each of the first three innings and was then able to ride a 7-0 lead to victory.
The Cardinals got on the board in the first inning with one run. J Patterson was walked to lead off the inning and then advanced to second on a Grant Hieb ground out. Aiden Ladd then hit a two-out single that sent Patterson home and made it 1-0. Menno got its lead-off batter on base with a single, but then went down one-two-three in the bottom of the inning.
Flandreau then extended its lead to 3-0 in the top of the second. Bret Severtson reached on an error with one out and Nate Kneebone walked with two outs to put runners on the corners. Severtson would score on a wild pitch and Kneebone came home on a Hieb single. Menno then went down one-two-three in the bottom of the inning, and it was 3-0 through two.
Flandreau broke the game open in the top of the third with four more runs. Keith Cutler led off the inning with a single and back-to-back one-out walks loaded the bases. Bret Severtson then hit a single that scored one run and Beau Severtson was then hit by a pitch, making it 5-0. Kneebone then came to plate and hit a single to left field. Two runs came across and it was 7-0.
The Cardinals loaded the bases in the top of the sixth with one out, but a double play ended the inning. Menno got on the board in the bottom of the inning. The second batter of the inning hit a double and then scored on an error with two outs to make it 7-1.
Flandreau had the bases loaded with one out once again in the seventh, but back-to-back fly outs ended the half inning. Menno led off the bottom of the inning with a single and a double then sent that runner home and made it 7-2. Menno was unable to get anything else going in the final two innings and the Cardinals came away with the win.
Dallas Schneiderman picked up the win for the Cardinals. He pitched the first four innings and gave up no runs on two hits, with two strikeouts and no walks. Drew Weber pitched the final five innings, giving up two runs, one earned, on three hits, with one strikeout and one walk.
Ladd was 2-for-5 with an RBI and Kneebone was 1-for-4 with two RBIs. Bret Severtson was 1-for-3 with an RBI and Hieb was 1-for-5 with an RBI. Jordan Gesling and Brain McGuire each went 1-for-4.
Flandreau had nine hits as a team, while Menno had just five. The Mad Frogs had five errors and the Cardinals had three. The Cardinals will take on the Kimball/White Lake Nationals at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The Nationals took down the Castlewood Monarchs, 7-1, in the final game of the first round. Kimball/White Lake had 13 hits on the day.
Larchwood (Iowa) 3, Volga 2
The Volga Cormorants season came to an end on Saturday afternoon as they fell to the Larchwood Diamonds, 3-2, in 10 innings.
Micah Linn hit a lead-off double in the bottom of the 10th and Cody Groskruetz followed with a double of his own win the game for the Diamonds. That was after Larchwood tied the game in the eighth inning.
After heavy rain, the game was moved to Drake Field in the sixth inning to make sure that games could be played at Cadwell Park the rest of the weekend since they could not afford to have any games be pushed back. Larchwood will play the Dell Rapids Mudcats on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Volga scored two runs in the top of the third to take a 2-0 lead. Josh Nelson hit a one-out single and Zach Puetz followed with a single of his own. Layne Lucas then reached on an error with two outs and both runners scored because of the error by the third baseman.
Larchwood would get one run back right away in the bottom of the inning. Eric McLauflin led off the inning with a single and then came around to score on a double from Linn.
Volga couldn’t get anything going the rest of the game and the Diamonds tied the game in the eighth. Linn led off with a double and then scored on a Mitch Peschon single, making it 2-2.
The ‘Rants went down one- two-three in the top of the 10th before Larchwood won the game in the bottom of the inning.
Parker Puetz pitched the first five innings for Volga and gave up one earned run on three hits, with six strikeouts and one walk. Nicolai Arbach pitched the final four innings and gave up two earned runs on five hits, with three strike-outs and three walks.
Volga had five hits as a team. Zach Puetz was 2-for-4 and Nelson was 1-for-2. Da-mian Danzeisen was 1-for-4 and Noah Puetz was 1-for-5.
