The Red Lake County Rebel Baseball team had great pitching, stellar defense, and all nine spots in the line-up had at least one hit on their way to a 10-0 victory over the Legacy Christian Academy in the first round of the Minnesota State High School League Class A baseball tournament at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud.
FIRST INNING-
The first two Red Lake County Rebel batters were retired on a strikeout and ground out before Ben Gullingsrud hit a ground ball deep in the hole to the shortstop and beat out the throw for an infield single. Kegan Schmitz followed and hit a fly ball to deep left field, but it was caught right in front of the warning track and the half-inning was over.
Red Lake County’s Will Gieseke was dealing to start the game as he retired all three batters he faced on eight pitches with two strikeouts and a fly out.
SECOND INNING-
Red Lake County’s Owen Chervestad was hit by a pitch with one out and Brock Knott reached on a fielder’s choice when LCA got the out at second base. Colin Taggart singled to third base, but the next batter struck out and the Rebel threat was over.
LCA’s Gavin Pratt hit a flare over the third baseman’s head for a single, but Gieseke go the next batter to fly out to right field before striking out the next two batters to retire LCA.
THIRD INNING –
Red Lake County’s Gunnar Halvorson singled with one out before the next two batters were retired.
LCA was retired in 1-2-3 fashion with a ground out, strikeout, and a fly out.
FOURTH INNING-
Red Lake County’s Brock Seeger was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Chervestad had a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to second base. After a flyout, Taggart singled to score Seeger for a 1-0 lead.
LCA’s Dean Raatz was hit by a pitch with one out before he was out at second on a fielder’s choice. The next Lion batter was retired and the inning was over.
FIFTH INNING-
Red Lake County broke the game open in the fifth inning. Gieseke got it started with a single and moved over to third base on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt. Halvorson reached on an error that allowed a run to score for a 2-0 lead. Gullingsrud was out on a sacrifice bunt before Kegan Schmitz singled to score a run. Seeger singled and Chervestad singled to score a run. Knott and Taggart followed with rbi singles for a 6-0 lead. The Rebels scored five runs on seven hits in the inning.
The first two LCA batters were retired before Isaac Carlson was hit by a pitch. Gieseke got the next batter to hit into a fielder’s choice for the third out of the inning.
SIXTH INNING-
Red Lake County was retired in 1-2-3 fashion for the first time in the game.
LCA’s leadoff batter reached on an error before the next batter hit into a double play. The next batter singled before an out on a fielder’s choice and Red Lake County took a 6-0 lead into the seventh inning.
SEVENTH INNING-
You can never lead by too many runs at tournament time and Red Lake County added some more runs in the top of the inning. Denny Lanctot walked with one out before Taggart tripled to score a run for a 7-0 lead.
Cain Cardinal reached on a walk and Taggart and Cardinal scored on wild pitches for a 9-0 lead. After an out, Halvorson and Gullingsrud walked and Schmitz singled to score another run for a 10-0 lead.
LCA’s lead-off batter was hit by a pitch before the next batter hit into a double play. Red Lake County’s Gullingsrud came into pitch due to the pitch count and retired the next batter on a strikeout and the Rebels won 10-0.
Red Lake County improves to 23-5 on the year and will play Parkers Prairie in the semi-finals at 11:30 a.m. at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud. The game can be heard on KROX Radio with a pre-game show at 11:00 a.m.
Legacy Christian Academy drops to 15-7 on the year and will play Frazee in the consolation semi-finals at 11:30 a.m. in Sauk Rapids.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
| Red Lake County | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 13 | 1 |
| Legacy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
OFFENSIVE LEADERS –
Red Lake County-
Colin Taggart – 4 for 4, 3 rbi, run
Kegan Schmitz – 2 for 5, 2 rbi, run
Seven other Rebels had one hit apiece
Legacy Christian Academy –
Dean Raatz – 1 for 2
Gavin Pratt – 1 for 3
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB/HBP | K |
| Will Gieseke-RLC | 6.2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| Ben Gullingsrud-RLC | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Solomon Kardell-LCA | 6.1 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| Cole Murphy-LCA | 0.1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Daniel Mink-LCA | 0.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
