by Dave DeMars
news@thenewsleaders.com
Showing a bit of muscle and a lot of fierce determination, the St. Joseph Joes took two games in regional playoff games on Aug. 5 and 6 in Hinckley. The first game went into extra innings against the Mora Blue Devils. The second game played against the Clear Lake Lakers on Aug. 6 saw the Joes take control of the game early and never look back.
So far the Joes have won nine of the last 10 games and they are just going to try and keep it rolling.
“We are in the state tournament – automatic(ally) – and we play for seed now,” said Pat Schneider, the Joes’ coach. “We play Friday night against the Sartell Muskies. Both teams are undefeated in regions. The winner of that game will be the number one seed. And we will play on Sunday as well.”
St. Joseph will face the Muskies at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11 in Hinckley at Brennan Field. If they lose the Friday night game against the Muskies, they will play again at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 13. If they beat the Muskies in Friday night’s game, they will play again at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
“If we play our game, we are pretty tough to beat,” Schneider said. “Right now we are pretty concerned about who we are going to draft. We get to draft two pitchers from other losing teams in the Eastern Minny League.”
Joes bedevil the Blue Devils in 6-5 win in the 10th
In the early going, neither team could find the ball to string together enough hits to score a run.
“We faced another really good pitcher,” Schneider said. “We were struggling. He was spotting his corners and throwing off-speed pitches that were extremely accurate. We had our hands full.”
It took until the fifth inning before the Joes managed to push a run across. But the Mora Blue Devils came back and scored a run in the sixth and tied it up. Then the Blue Devils found some holes in the Joe defense and managed two more runs in the seventh to give themselves a little cushion and a 3-1 lead.
But fate has a way of upsetting everything. Alex Kendall hit a line shot up the center and the ball hit the Blue Devil pitcher in his throwing hand that limited his effectiveness. The Joes started to come back and managed to score one run in the seventh, but they were still on the short end of the stick. In the eighth inning, the Devils managed another run while the Joes collected a goose egg on the scoreboard. It looked like Devil pitcher Asa Patterson and the rest of the Blue Devils were going to bedevil the Joes and send them home early but the injured hand caused Patterson to leave the game early. Patterson struck out 10 Joes during his eight-and-a-third innings on the mound before he was pulled with a 4-2 lead.
But the Joes are a gritty bunch, and in the bottom of the ninth they found the Blue Devil relievers to their liking and managed to eke out two runs tying the game 4-4 and sending it into extra innings. Then it was the Blue Devils who collected the goose egg in the top of the 10th. The Joes came to bat in the bottom of the inning, and Joe Stock smashed one of his doubles off the left-field fence driving in the winning run from first base to squeak out a 5-4 win in the 10th.
“That was pretty dramatic,” Schneider said.
Leading the way on the mound was Kendall who threw for nine innings, striking out seven, giving up five hits and four runs. Jack Atkinson relieved Kendall in the 10th and held the Blue Devils scoreless.
At the plate it was Joe Stock who did most of the damage going three for five, with two doubles and a triple. Stock also scored once himself. Hunter Blommer was one for four on the afternoon, but his one opportunistic hit drove in two big runs for the Joes.
“There were a lot of good plays in this game – a lot of good defense,” Schneider said. “Both teams deserved to win, but we just happened to come out on top.”
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Team
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E L Mora Blue Devils 0
0
0
0
0
1
2
1
0
0
4
5
1
6
St. Joseph 0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
2
1
5
11
5
7
Joes sink the Lakers 5-2
The St. Joseph Joes found their hitting eye under the lights Aug. 6 as they tattooed the Clear Lake Lakers for a run in the first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh innings. In total, the Joes smacked nine hits, five of which were doubles, and that gave them the 5-2 win over the Lakers.
“We scored one run five times,” Schneider said.
Greg Anderson threw six innings and held the Lakers to zip until the sixth inning when they managed two unearned runs. It wasn’t the star outing Anderson would have liked, but he was good enough when he had to be and allowed only three hits in six innings. Jack Atkinson took over for the last three innings striking out three and giving up two hits.
At the plate the Joes showed some power. Three players got doubles and Ethan Carlson got a pair of two baggers. With the Joes smacking the ball around, Laker pitcher Cody Gruenhagen had a long six innings giving up four runs before he was relieved by Cory Schmidt. Eric Vigil and Carlson both went two for three and each of them drove in a run.
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Team
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E L Clear Lake Lakers 0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
5
4
5
St. Joseph 1
0
1
1
1
0
1
0
–
5
9
3
7
