The Sacred Heart Eagles scored nine runs in the final two innings to complete a come from behind 9-8 victory over the Crookston Pirate Baseball team in a game played in East Grand Forks.
Control problems on the mound hurt Sacred Heart early in the game as the first five Crookston batters reached by walk or hit by pitch. Gunner Gunderson led off the game with a walk, Jacob Miller and Brooks Butt followed with walks to load the bases. Gunderson scored on a balk. A pitch hit Carter Bruggeman to load the bases, and Cade DeLeon walked to score a run. Sacred Heart made a pitching change, and the next two batters flew out in the infield. Austin Trinkle singled to score two more runs and another run scored later to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead.
Jacob Miller was outstanding on the mound and struck out the leadoff batter. After a single, Miller struck out the next two batters to get out of the inning. “I was happy with how we started,” said Pirate Coach Mitch Bakken. “Getting out to a lead early helps the pitchers, even if we didn’t earn much in the inning, we will take what we get.”
After a scoreless second inning, Ethan Boll led off the third inning with a single and scored on an Ashton Larson single for a 6-0 lead. “Ethan had a nice at bat and reached after getting a solid single,” said Pirate Coach Bakken. “Ashton had a line drive and he had a nice at-bat.”
After a scoreless fourth inning, Boll drew a one-out walk and stole second base before Larson singled to score Boll for a 7-0 lead. “Ashton went to the right side on that one,” said Pirate Coach Bakken. “He had some great at-bats today and he did outstanding behind the plate too.”
In the top of the sixth inning, Jacob Miller walked, Brooks Butt was hit by a pitch, and Carter Bruggeman singled to score a run for an 8-0 lead, and things were looking good for Crookston. “It was one of those things,” said Pirate Coach Bakken. “Carter muscled one through for a hit to score a run.”
The pitch count came back to haunt the Pirates in the bottom of the sixth inning. Sacred Heart’s Gage Wavra reached on an error, and after Miller struck out the next batter, he had to be pulled from the game because he reached the max number of pitches he could throw according to Minnesota State High School rules. “We get paid to coach and we’re not going to hurt anybody, but they tell us we have to pull a pitcher with 105 pitches,” said Crookston Coach Bakken. “We have two games tomorrow and it would have been nice to be able to keep Miller out there.” Crookston brought in a new pitcher, and Sacred Heart blooped and hit six straight hits. Nick Brundin started with a single, Parker Erickson had a two rbi single, Caden Reimer and Sam Modeen singled. Breck Bloom singled to score a run, Cullen Rohrich followed with a rbi single, and after an out, Gage Wavra blasted a line drive to the fence on a one-hopper to clear the bases, scoring three runs to bring the Eagles within an 8-7 deficit. “We put the ball in play and our approaches were better in the sixth inning and once we started getting some momentum the guys did a better job,” said Sacred Heart Coach Paul Bethke. “It’s all about putting the ball in play and when you do that you have a good chance of making things happen. It took a long time, but they finally came around and Gage has come up big in situations like that.”
Crookston started the seventh inning with a walk and a single, but the next three batters were retired, and the lead stayed at 8-7.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Nick Brundin started with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball, and moved to third on a wild pitch. The following two batters struck out before Sam Modeen singled to score Brundin to tie the game at 8-8. “That is why we work on baserunning and they have done a good job this year and it got us in position to tie the game,” said Eagle Coach Bethke. Pirate pitcher Brooks Butt had to be pulled because of the pitch count, and George Widman came into pitch. On his fifth pitch, the Sacred Heart pinch hitter Ethan Arnston singled down the right-field line to score the game-winning run to complete a huge come-from-behind victory 9-8. “We told them just getting the bat on ball and good things happen,” said Eagle Coach Bethke. “It was a good one and we learned from this. We never gave up and we got great pitching from Caden Reimer and Isaac Zavoral.”
Crookston drops to 5-3 on the year and will travel to Thief River Falls on Friday. Sacred Heart improves to 4-1 on the year and will travel to the Northern Freeze on Friday.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
| CROOKSTON | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 1 |
| Sacred Heart | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 12 | 1 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
| Jacob Miller -Crox | 5.1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Ethan Boll – Crox | 0 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Brooks Butt – Crox | 1.1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| George Widman – Crox | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Landon Walker – SH | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Caden Reimer – SH | 5 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| Isaac Zavoral – SH | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
For CROOKSTON
Ashton Larson – 2 for 4, 2 rbi
Austin Trinkle – 1 for 4, 2 rbi
Jacob Miller – 1 for 3, 2 walks, 2 runs
For Sacred Heart
Sam Modeen – 2 for 4, 2 runs
Nick Brundin – 2 for 4, 2 runs
Isaac Zavoral – 2 for 4
Ethan Arnston – 1 for 1, walk-off pinch-hit
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