Crookston Pirate Baseball falls to Park Rapids 1-0 in Section 8AA tourney

The Crookston Pirate Baseball team got a great pitching and defensive performance, but couldn’t find a way to score a run in a 1-0 loss to the Park Rapids Panthers in the first round of the Section 8AA Baseball tournament in Park Rapids.

FIRST INNING-
Crookston’s Dexter Janek drew a leadoff walk before he was caught stealing for the first out of the inning. Greyson Ecker walked and stole second base, but the next two batters struck out and grounded out.
Park Rapids’ Wrigley Clark led off the bottom of the inning with a single before stealing second base. Clark advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt. The next batter struck out, but the third strike was dropped, and the Pirates threw to first base to get the out, but Clark sprinted home, on the throw to first, and scored for a 1-0 lead.

SECOND INNING-
Crookston’s Cody Demarais led off with a walk before the next batter tried a sacrifice bunt, but it was too hard and went to the pitcher, who got the out at second base. The next two batters struck out.
Park Rapids’ Owen Hase led off with a walk, Nolan Michaelson singled and Sawyer Harvig reached on an error to load the bases with nobody out. Park Rapids tried a suicide squeeze, but didn’t bunt the ball, and the runner at third was caught in a rundown and was tagged out. The runner at second tried to advance to third on the play and was tagged out at third base for a huge double play. The next batter struck out and the Park Rapids threat was over.

THIRD INNING –
Crookston was retired in 1-2-3 fashion with three strikeouts.
Park Rapids was also retired in a 1-2-3 fashion with a groundout, strikeout, and flyout.

FOURTH INNING-
The leadoff batter, Hlucny walked before he was caught stealing on a great throw by the catcher for the first out of the inning. Isaiah Donarski walked, and after the second out of the inning, Nolan Cassavant singled to right field, and Davin Janek also singled to right field. The Pirates tried to score on the play, but the Panther relay from right field was in time, and the Pirate baserunner was out at home for the third out of the inning.
The first Park Rapids batter flew out to right field. The next batter struck out, but the pitch got by the catcher, and the batter reached. The next two batters were retired, and Park Rapids took a 1-0 lead into the fifth inning.

FIFTH INNING-
Crookston was retired in a 1-2-3 fashion with a strikeout, groundout, and a flyout.
Park Rapids leadoff batter walked and stole second base. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to third with one out. The next batter was hit by a pitch, and after a pop fly out to first base, Crookston walked the next batter to load the bases. The next batter grounded out, and Crookston got out of a big jam.

SIXTH INNING-
Crookston was retired in 1-2-3 fashion with a groundout, lineout, and popout.
Park Rapids’ first two batters were retired before three walks to load the bases. The next batter grounded out to the pitcher and the inning was over with Park Rapids leading 1-0.

SEVENTH INNING-
Crookston needed at least one run to keep the game going, but were retired in 1-2-3 fashion with a pair of strikeouts, and a flyout to win the game 1-0.

Crookston’s season ends with a record of 6-12, and they say goodbye to the following seniors – Dexter Janek, Greyson Ecker, Gavyn Hlucny, Isaiah Donarski, Cody Demarais, Nolan Cassavant, Tarek Siegle, Lucas Perala, and Masen Reitmeier.
Park Rapids improves to 9-12 on the year and will play East Grand Forks at Noon on Thursday at Jim Karn Field in Crookston.