In the first game of the Region 9C Tournament on Friday night in Avon, the #5 seeded Opole Bears lead wire-to-wire in a 7-1 win over the #4 seeded St. Wendel Saints.
Opole scored in the top of the 1st when Masy Patrick lined a single on the first pitch of the game from Saints starter Nate Psyck. Patrick then swiped both 2nd and 3rd, then scored on a 1-out rbi single from Drew Lange to give Ople a 1-0 lead.
The Bears scored again in the top of the 2nd when Isaiah Folsom walked with 1 out, followed by another walk to Tate Lange. Masyn Patrick then hit into a force out, giving Opole runners at the corners with 2 outs. A wild pitch from Psyck then allowed Folsom to race home and give Opole a 2-0 lead.
Opole then grew their lead to 6-0 in the top of the 4th when Mavrick Novitski led off with an infield single, followed by a 1-out single from Tate Lange. Masyn Patrick then singled to drive in Novitski and make it 3-0. Brodi Huls then had the big hit of the inning when he ripped a 2-run single, scoring both Tate Lange and Masyn Patrick to make it 5-0. Huls later scored on a sacrifice fly from Luke Bieniek to put Opole ahead 6-0 after 3 1/2 innings.
It wasn’t like the Saints didn’t have some chances to score against Bears starter Tate Lange in the first few innings. Austin Dickmann led off the 1st with a single and with 1 out, Tanner Reis smashed a double to left cneter, but when Bears left fielder Masyn Patrick retrieved the ball and hit the cut-off man Brodi Huls, the Opole shortsop made a great relay throw from shallow cneter field to the plate to nail Dickmann trying to score. In the bottom of the 2nd, Jacob Worlie led off the inning with a gap shot to left center, but he as cut down trying to stretch his single into a double by another strong throw from Masyn Patrick in left field. In the 3rd, the Saints got back-to-back 1-out singles from Carter Voss and Tanner Reis, but Tate Lange then fanned the next 2 hitters to strand both runners.
In the top of the 7th, Luke Bieniek singled with 1 out, then stole 2nd. A single by Alex Lange moved Bieniek to 3rd. Opole then utilized the delayed steal to score Bieniek from 3rd as Alex Lange got caught in a rundown between 1st and 2nd, giving Opole a 7-0 lead at the 7th inning stretch.
In the bottom of the 9th, Zack Cekalla reached on a 1-out error for St. Wendel. Tanner Tomasek then doubled. After a groundout to 3rd baseman Mav Novitski for the 2nd out, a ground ball off the bat of Rolando Ramos was thrown away for an error, allowing Cekalla to score and make it 7-1. Tate Lange then finished off his complete game effort by getting Austin Dickmann to pop out to 2nd baseman Isaiah Folsom to end the game with the 7-1 Opole victory.
Opole will now play the winner of the #1 Randall vs #8 Aitkin game next weekend while St. Wendel will play the loser of that game in an elimination contest next weekend.
Opole 7 12 3 – 7
St. Wendel 1 8 0 – 1
WP: Tate Lange 9.0 IP 1 run 8 hits 8k 1bb 1hp
LP: Nate Psyck 3.1 IP 5 runs 8 hits 6k 2bb
Chase Lyon 4.2 IP 2 runs 4 hits 7k 1bb
Aiden Micholski 1.0 IP 0 runs 0 hits 1k 1bb
Bears:
Masyn Patrick 2-5 3 sb, rbi, 2 runs
Brodi Huls 2-4 bb, 2 sb, 2 rbi, run
Drew Lange 1-4 bb, 2 sb, rbi
Luke Bieniek 2-4 sac fly, 2 sb, rbi, run
Alex Lange 2-5
Chris Ebnet 0-4
– Jordan Schmitz
Mavrick Novitski 1-4 run
Isaiah Folsom 1-3 bb, run
Tate Lange 1-3 bb, run
Saints:
Austin Dickmann 1-5
Carter Voss 1-4
Tanner Reis 2-4 2B
Jake Ethen 0-3
– Nate Psyck
– Chase Lyon
– Brandon Dickmann 0-1
Jacob Worlie 1-4
Zack Cekalla 0-4 run
Tanner Tomasek 2-3 2B, bb
Logan Harren 0-3 hp
Rolando Ramos 1-4