Stewartville was fortunate to find itself in the championship round, after scoring four unearned runs to win 4-3 over Caledonia/Spring Grove in the losers bracket final earlier on Tuesday.
Two dropped balls in the outfield by Caledonia/Spring Grove allowed Stewartville to score all of its runs.
Stewartville got the game winner in the bottom of the seventh when Tyler Schmitz reached base on a drop by the CSG left-fielder. Schmitz was sacrificed to second base, went to third on an error, and scored on Aaron Simmons' single to right field.
The Tigers took a 3-0 lead in the second inning with three unearned runs on another dropped fly ball, this one in right field. Stewartville bunched three hits with a walk and the error.
Caledonia/Spring Grove got on the board in the fifth when Austin Goergen doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Travis Frank. The Warriors rallied for two more runs in the seventh on five straight hits, with RBI singles from Brett Colsch and Frank.
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Both pitchers went the distance. Senior right-hander Shane Mlenar got the win for Stewartville, and senior right-hander Matt Petersen got the loss for CSG. Both had five strikeouts.
Caledonia/Spring Grove, which was in the section final four for the second straight year under coach Dave Konz, finished 16-9. There were 11 seniors on the team.
Stewartville 4, Caledonia/Spring Grove 3
Caledonia-Spring Grove .......#000#010#2#—#3#8#3
Stewartville .....#030#000#1#—#4#6#0
Caledonia/Spring Grove:Matt Petersen 1-for-3; Austin Goergen 1-for-2, 1 2B, 2 R; Josh Lampert 1-for-2; Travis Frank 2-for-3, 2 RBI; Ryan Eppen 1-for-3, 1 R; Brett Colsch 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI. LP: Matt Petersen 7 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 K .
Stewartville:Sam Quackenbush 2-for-3; Tyler Schmitz 2 R; Brady Gross 1-for-2; Robby Campbell 1-for-4; Luke Lonien 1-for-2, 1 R; Aaron Simmons 1-for-4; Taner Wieck 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 SB. WP: Shane Mlenar 7 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.
