The Royalton Riverdogs and the Aitken Steam played a highly-entertaining 12 inning game on Sunday with the Riverdogs prevailing 8-7 when Brady Yourczek stroked a 2-run single in the bottom of the 12th to give Roy6alton an 8-7 win over the Steam.
Royalton did a lot of their work in the early innings, scoring 1 in the bottom of the 1st when Grayson Suska led off with a single, went to 2nd on a sacrifice bunt by Drew Yourczek and scored on a 2-out rbi single by Brady Yourczek to make it 1-0.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Ethan Albright singled to center, Joe Gaida walked, with Albright swiping 3rd. Zack Cekalla drove in Albright with a ground out to make it 2-0. Ryan Snyder then walked, moving Cekalla to 2nd. After a strikeout, a wild pitch advanced Cekalla to 3rd and Snyder to 2nd. Drew Yourczek then singled to drive in Cekalla and Snyder came to score as well on an error on the play to put Royalton up 4-0 after 2 innings.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Tyler Jendro led off with a single to center, went to 2nd on a ground out to 1st and was wild pitched to 3rd. Nathan Psyck then put down a perfect squeeze bunt to drive in Jendro to make it 5-0.
Aitkin finally got going in the top of the 4th when Zach Ehnstrom walked, Jake McGuire singled and Joey Simonson walked to load the bases with no outs against Royalton starter Marcus Hayes. After Hayes struck out Hunter Hills, he walked Carson Kullhem to force in Ehnstrom to make it a 5-1 game. Hayes got Thor Dunham to line out to 2nd but then an error on a ball hit by Dan Krier allowed McGuire to score and make it 5-2. John McGuire then ripped a 2-run single, plating both Simonson and Kullhem to make it 5-4.
In the top of the 5th with Nathan Psyck on in relief of Marcus Hayes, Zach Ehnstorm belted a 1st pitch Homer over the fence in right and the game was tied at 5-5.
After Zach Ehnstrom had thrown the first 3 innings, Aitkin gave the ball over to Nathan Ehnstorm and he held the Riverdogs off the board until the bottom of the 8th when Tyler Jendro sent a line-drive solo Homer over the left field fence to put Royalton up 6-5 after 8 innings.
With Brady Yourczek on the mound for Royalton since the start of the 7th, he needed just 3 outs to lock down a win. But he walked John McGuire, then gave up a 1-out single to Zach Ehnstrom that advanced McGuire to 3rd. Ehnstrom then stole 2nd and the Steam had the tying run at 3rd and go-ahead run at 2nd with 1 out. Yourczek got Jake McGuire to fly out to right, allowing John McGuire to tag up and score to tie things up at 6-6, with Zach Ehnstrom tagging up and moving to 3rd. Joey Simonson tried to catch the Riverdogs defense napping by laying down a 2-out bunt, but he was thrown out by catcher Drew Yourczek to end the inning.
Nathan Ehnstrom made quick work of the 3 Royalton batters he faced in the bottom of the 9th, getting all 3 on called 3rd strikes to guarantee extra innings.
Brady Yourczek came out and worked a 1-2-3 top of the 10th on a ground out to 3rd baseman Grayson Suska, a strikeout and and fly out to center fielder Ryan Snyder.
In the bottom of the 10th, Ryan Snyder led off by reaching on an error. Grayson Suska then grounded out, sending Snyder to 2nd. Drew Yourczek then hit a little pop up behind the mound that managed to fall in for a single, with Snyder staying put at 2nd. Nathan Ehnstorm then fanned Tyler Jendro and got Brady Yourczek to fly out to Carson Kullhem in center to take the game to the 11th still tied at 6-6.
Aitkin had another good chance to score in the 11th without the benefit of a base hit. Pinch-hitter Owen Foday went down on strikes, but then Brady Yourczek hit John McGuire in the foot with a pitch, then got Nathan Ehnstrom to fly out to Ryan Snyder in center. After a wild pitch put McGuire at 2nd with 1 out, the Riverdogs took the bat out of Zach Ehnstrom’s hands with an intentional walk. Another wild pitch put runners at 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. Brady Yourczek then walked Jake McGuire to load the bases, bringing up Joey Simonson. Yourczek got a big swinging strikeout on a 3-2 to pitch to Simonson as Aitkin left the bases loaded in the top of the 11th.
In the bottom of the 11th, Royalton put the potential winning run on 1st with a walk to Nathan Psyck. Ethan Albright tried to sacrifice Psyck to 2nd but Nathan Psyck pounced on the bunt and fired to 2nd for a force out. Joe Gaida then grounded out to 1st and Zack Cekalla flew out to center to move the game to the top of the 12th.
Brady Yourczek got Hunter Hills to bounce back to the mound to start the 12th, but then walked Carson Kullhem. Thor Dunham then beat out an infield single to give Aitkin 2 men on. Yourczek the struck out Dan Krier for the 2nd out of the inning, followed by a 4-pitch walk to John McGuire to load the bases. A wild pitch from Yourczek allowed Carson Kullhem to score and Aitkin had their first lead of the game, going up 7-6 before Nathan Ehnstrom grounded out to shortstop Zack Cekalla to end the inning.
Now it was the Riverdogs that were down to their final turn at bat against Nathan Ehnstrom. Ehnstrom opened the bottom of the 12th by getting Ryan Snyder to ground out to 2nd, but then Grayson Suska lined an opposite field single to left. Drew Yourczek then ripped a single to right with Suska advancing to 2nd. Tyler Jendro then got hit by an Ehnstrom pitch and Royalton had the bases loaded with 1 out. That brought up Brady Yourczek, who lined a 1-0 pitch from Ehnstrom into right field, easily scoring Grayson Suska with the tying run and as Steam right fielder Thor Dunham scooped up the ball and unleashed his throw to the plate, Drew Yourczek was sprinting for home. The runner and the ball arrived at almost the same identical time, but Yourczek was able to just get his hand onto home plate before the tag was applied to score the winning run and give the Riverdogs the 8-7 win in 12 innings over Aitkin.
It was the 2nd extra-inning game of the season for both teams and ironically their previous extra-inning games had both come on June 8th when Aitkin lost 1-0 in 11 innings at St. Mathias while Royalton outlasted Freeport 6-4 in 16 innings.
The result of the game created a 4-way logjam in the Victory League Class C standings as now Aitkin, Freeport, Royalton and St. Mathias are all 3-6 with 2 games left to play.
Aitkin 7 8 2 – 7 12 innings
Royalton 8 11 1 – 8
WP: Brady Yourczek 6.0IP 2 runs 3 hits 8k 6bb 1hp
Marcus Hayes 4.0IP 4 runs 4 hits 5k 3bb
Nathan Psyck 2.0IP 1 run 1 hit 2k 1bb
LP: Nathan Ehnstrom 8.1IP 3 runs 6 hits 9k 1bb 1hp
Zach Ehnstrom 3.0IP 5 runs 5 hits 1k 2bb
Riverdogs:
Grayson Suska 2-6 2 runs
Drew Yourczek 3-5 sac, rbi, run
Tyler Jendro 3-5 Hr, hp, rbi, 2 runs
Brady Yourczek 2-6 3 rbi
Nathan Psyck 0-3 bb, sac, rbi
Ethan Albright 1-5 sb, run
Joe Gaida 0-4 bb
– Marcus Hayes 0-0
– Kirk Yourczek 0-0
Zack Cekalla 0-5 rbi, run
Ryan Snyder 0-4 bb, run
Steam:
John McGuire 1-4 2bb, hp, 2 rbi, run
– Mark Rohde 0-0
Nathan Ehnstrom 0-7
Zach Ehnstrom 3-4 Hr, 2bb, sb, rbi, 2 runs
Jake McGuire 1-3 sac fly, 2bb, rbi, run
Joey Simonson 1-5 bb, run
Hunter Hills 1-5 bb
Carson Kullhem 0-4 2bb, rbi, 2 runs
Thor Dunham 1-6
Dan Krier 0-5
– Owen Foday 0-1