By Kip Kovar
BROWNTON — Making their first state tournament appearance since 2020, the Howard Lake Orphans had their work cut out for them. Coming out of Region 6 as the No. 2 seed, the Orphans might have been the home team on the scoreboard, but that’s where the advantage stopped.
Taking on the Brownton Bruins in their home ballpark, it was Howard Lake who used a gem on the mound from Jared Koch and found the clutch hits when they needed them to pick up a 4-2 win at Barney Tadsen Field Friday night to spoil the Brownton festivities.
With two proven pitchers on the mound, both teams knew scoring chances would be limited in this matchup. Both Howard Lake’s Jared Koch and Brownton’s Ryan Grams retired the opposition in order to set up the pitcher’s duel. After neither could push across a run through the first four innings, it was the Orphans breaking through in the bottom of the fifth.
Veteran Matt Streich got things rolling with a one-out bunt single. A throwing error on the play moved him up to second, and this time, Howard Lake cashed in on the scoring opportunity. Just two pitches later, Bennett Anderson delivered an RBI single to right center field and gave the Orphans a 1-0 lead.
While it looked like one run might be enough with the way both pitchers were rolling early, the Orphans didn’t settle for one. With two outs, Zach Kuefler delivered a clutch RBI single to score two more runs and give his team a 3-0 lead.
Brownton had a chance to answer right back in the top of the sixth. Spencer Glaeser opened the inning with a leadoff single, but Koch worked around the leadoff runner as a pair of strikeouts and a fly out got him out of the inning with the three-run lead intact.
The Orphans added to their lead in the bottom of the seventh. After Grams got the first two outs of the inning, Howard Lake channeled some two-out magic with some clutch hitting again. Kuefler kept the inning alive with a single, and after Brad Bickman reached on a walk, Charlie Mumford made it 4-0 Orphans with an RBI single to center.
Down by four with its back against the wall, Brownton battled back. After an error and two walks loaded the bases in the top of the eighth, Scott Finberg came through with an RBI single to get the Bruins on the board. Grams then reached on a walk to close the gap to 4-2, but Dassel-Coakto draftee Jordan Flick got Howard Lake out of trouble as he retired all five batters he faced to seal the win for the Orphans and send them to the second round.
Pitching and clutch hitting are what it takes to win this time of the year, and that’s exactly what Howard Lake did. Of its four runs scored, three of them came with two outs as it found the big hit when they needed it. They also got a great start on the mound by Koch, who tossed seven shutout innings in which he held Brownton to just five hits while striking out six.
With the win, Howard Lake advances to play the winner of Windom Sunday, Aug. 24 at 4 p.m. back at Barney Tadsen Field.
