Kaden Toutges threw a Complete Game and Matt Johnson and Ryan Liebrenz carried the offense as the 7th seeded Freeport Black Sox beat the #10 seeded Royalton Riverdogs 7-1 on Friday night at Black Sox Park in Game 1 of the best 2-of-3 playoff series. Game 2 will be on Saturday at 4:00 pm in Freeport with Royalton acting as the Home team. A decisive Game 3 would follow at Black Sox Park on Saturday if necessary.
The Black Sox struck for 2 runs in the bottom of the 2nd on a 2-out, 2-run double from Ryan Liebrenz to grab the early lead.
Freeport made it 3-0 in the bottom of the 5th when Matt Johnson scored on a Royalton error as the Sox executed a double steal.
The Sox then added 3 more in the bottom of the 7th when Ryan Liebrenz singled to drive in pinch-runner Bentley Ritter, Jared Laudenbauch had an rbi single and Owen Fradette added a sacrifice fly to give Freeport a 6-0 lead after 7 innings.
The Riverdogs got on the board in the top of the 8th when a Tyler Jendro rbi single with 2 outs drove home pinch-runner Hunter Young to make it 6-1.
Freeport closed out the scoring in the bottom of the 8th on an rbi double from Matt Johnson to make the score 7-1 after 8 innings.
Kaden Toutges came out and finished off his Complete Game effort by working a 1-2-3 top of the 9th to sew up the Black Sox win.
Royalton 1 9 4 – 1
Freeport 7 8 1 – 7
WP: Kaden Toutges 9.0 IP 1 run 9 hits 7k 4bb 2hp
LP: Keaton Nelson 7.0 IP 6 runs 7 hits 4k 5bb 1hp
Gavin Suska 1.0 IP 1 run 1 hit 0k 1bb
Black Sox:
Matt Johnson 2-3 2B(2), 2bb, sb, rbi, 3 runs
Ryan Liebrenz 3-4 2B, bb, 3 rbi, run
Mason Toutges 1-3 bb, sb
Jared Laudenbauch 1-4 rbi
Owen Fradette 0-2 sac fly, bb, rbi
Trevor Sawyer 0-4
Nate Mettenburg 0-2 bb, 2 runs
Addi Dobowey 0-4
Iver Papke 1-3
– Bentley Ritter 0-1 run
Riverdogs:
Kirk Yourczek 2-5
Tyler Jendro 1-3 hp, rbi
Drew Yourczek 0-2 2bb, hp
Keaton Nelson 1-3 bb
Gavin Suska 1-5
Ryan Swenson 1-5
Joey Gaida 1-3 bb
– Hunter Young 0-0 run
Jared Albright 1-4
Ryan Snyder 1-4