The Crookston Reds Amateur Baseball team used two big offensive innings to overcome an error-plagued night for an 11-6 win over the Ada A’s.
Ada would get on the board to open the game in the top of the first when Braiden Fetting singled to right center and stole second with one out. Two batters later Riley Resnick singled to right to score Fetting giving Ada a 1-0 lead. The Reds would answer back in the bottom of the inning when Will Zimmerman drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a fielder’s choice. Zimmerman then stole third and the catcher’s throw sailed into left allowing Zimmerman to score and tie the game at 1-1.
Ada would reclaim the lead in the second inning when Drake Solseng singled to center with one out. Colby Stevenson would follow with a hit down the rightfield line that tailed off into the fence and was misplayed off the wall allowing Solseng to score and Stevenson to move to third. With a man on third and one out the Reds Owen Ellefson was able to work out of the jam with a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning with Ada leading 2-1.
Both pitchers would cruise through their next three innings as Ada took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning before the Reds bats came alive. Zimmerman reached on an error before being forced out at second on a fielder’s choice. A flyout followed for the second hit of the inning before the Reds strung to get four hits helped out by one Ada error on a hard hit ball to build a big inning. Riley Thompson singled, followed by an RBI single from Matt Morin that plated Noah Zimmerman to tie the game as Thompson moved up to second. Ellefson singled to load the bases before Dave Grabowski smashed a ball to third that got by the third baseman allowing two runs to score giving the Reds a 4-2 lead with runners on first and second. Lars Brevik follow with an RBI single to center to score one run and the centerfielder misplayed the ball letting it get past him allowing Grabowski to score from first and Crookston led 6-2. “We were hitting the ball pretty well through the first four innings but it just wasn’t falling in,” said Reds coach Rob Silvers. “In the fifth we were finally able to start stringing a few hits to together and it helped us kind of open up the game quite a bit.”
Ada would get a run back in the sixth following a leadoff single when Sunny Resnick reached on a fielder’s choice on a forceout at second. He then advanced to second on a wild pitch and came home to score on an error when a groundball got past the third baseman making it 6-3. Crookston would get that run back in the home half of the inning when Will Zimmerman led off with a walk and stole second before coming home to score on an error to make it 7-3.
The Reds appeared to put the game away in the seventh as Ellefson led off with a double which was followed with a walk to Grabowski. Following an infield fly, Jacob Butcher would walk to load the bases with one out. A wild pitch brought home Ellefson before Will Zimmerman hit a ground ball to left to score Grabowski and Zimmerman never stopped running as he raced into second for a double ahead of the throw. Noah Zimmerman following with an infield single that scored Butcher to make it 10-3 and an RBI groundout by Bailey Schmitz made it 11-3 after seven.
Ada rallied in the eighth Resnick singled to lead off the inning and scored on a double by Solseng. A Stevenson single put runners on the corners with nobody out A fielder’s choice scored Solseng leaving a runner on first with one out. Brett Fetting would reach on an error and Braiden Fetting hit into a fielder’s choice forcing out Brett Fetting, the relay to first was wide allowing Solseng to score and the throw to the plate went over the catcher’s head allowing Braiden Fetting to move to second and cutting the lead to 11-6. Ellefson would get out off inning with a ground ball. “This was a key win for us after a couple of rough nights offensively last week,” said Silvers. “We still didn’t play very well defensively. We had a few physical mistakes which will get cut down as we play more consistently but we also had three or four mental mistakes that showed up in the error column, whether it was trying to turn a double play and throwing the ball away on a play a guy when a guy was already safe by three steps, or attempting a flip from 25 feet away to compounding an error with a second air by rushing a throw and having the ball sail.”
Both teams would get runners to second base in their final at-bats but were unable to score and Crookston held on for an 11-6 to improve to 4-4 on the year. The Reds return to action Friday at 6:00 p.m. in the first game of the Jim Karn Memorial Tournament in Crookston against the Bonivital Brewers. Ada falls to 6-3 on the year.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Ada | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 6 |
| Crookston | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | x | 11 | 14 | 8 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Owen Ellefson – Crox (WP) | 9.0 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Brett Fetting – Ada (LP) | 5.0 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Drake Solseng – Ada | 3.0 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
For Crookston
Owen Ellefson 3-5, 2B, 2 R
Matt Morin 2-5, RBI, R
Will Zimmerman 2-3, 2B, BB, RBI, 3 R, 2 SB
For Ada
Braiden Fetting 4-5, SB, R
Drake Solseng 2-5, 2B, RBI, 2 R
Colby Stevenson 2-4
