St. Cloud Cathedral pitcher Jeff Fasching came within one out of a no-hitter but settled for a one-hit, complete-game victory,4 leading the No. 1-seeded Crusaders to a 4-1 victory over Luverne.
Fasching walked three and hit a batter, but had more than enough to handle the Luverne hitters, striking out five. He nearly had the third no-hitter of the tournament’s first day but gave up a two-out double to Luverne’s Gunnar Olson in the top of the seventh inning.
Cathedral, which only managed two hits of their own, broke open a 1-1 game with three runs on the bottom of the third inning on three walks, a single by Fasching, a hit batter and a sacrifice fly.
JIM PAULSEN
Kasson-Mantorville took a few inning to get warmed up, but the KoMets found their groove in the fourth inning, pulling away to beat Hermantown 4-1.
The KoMets got a complete game from pitcher Joey Hyde, who scattered six hits, none after the fourth inning. After going hitless through the first three innings, Kasson-Mantorville scored a run in the fourth and added three more in the sixth on a double, a triple, two walks, a hit batter and an error.
Kasson-Mantorville will face St. Cloud Cathedral in Friday’s semifinals.
JIM PAULSEN
Watertown-Mayer (17-8) got more than enough pitching and just a little bit of luck to beat Minnehaha Academy 1-0 and extend their surprising season.
The Royals got a two-hit, complete-game victory from starter Michael Herd and scored their only run without the benefit of a hit. Leading off the fifth inning, Joe Reinert was safe on an error, moved to third on a pair of walks and scored on a catcher’s interference call.
Minnehaha Academy pitcher John Pryor had a superb effort go for naught. Pryor had a no-hitter through 6 1/3 innings – it was broken up by a single to deep short by Watertown-Mayer’s Mark Sandquist—and finished with 15 strikeouts. The Redhawks fell to 17-6.
JIM PAULSEN
For Delano, putting runners on base was no problem. Getting them home was another matter altogether.
The Tigers had eight hits and a walk but only managed a single run off Perham pitcher Eric Brauch, falling 3-1.
Delano starter Zack Muckenhirn struggled with his control early and it cost the Tigers. He walked four batters in the first two innings and two of them scored. He settled down and didn’t walk a batter over the final five innings, but the damage had been done. Perham (17-5) added an insurance in the top of the fifth.
Delano (17-3) put runners on base in five of seven innings, including a major threat in the third when they had runners on second and third with one out, but Brauch, locating his pitches well, emerged unscathed.
JIM PAULSEN