The St. Stephen Steves bashed 6 Home Runs enroute to a 9-7 win over the Nisswa Lightning on Sunday in the District 4B Championship game in Sobieski.
The Steves exploded for 4 runs in the top of the 1st when Mat Meyer lined a 3-run Homer over the fence in right, then Zack Fuecker made it back-to-back Homers with a solo shot of his own to make it 4-0.
Nisswa came right back in the bottom of the 1st with 4 runs of their own on consecutive 2-out rbi single from Aaron Jenkins and Brett Jenkins and the a 2-run double from Chris Pederson to make it 4-4 after 1 inning.
In the top of the 2nd, the Steves struck again when Jake Schelonka and Cole Fuecker smashed back-to-back solo Homers to make it 6-4.
The Steves made it 7-4 in the top of the 3rd on an rbi single from Joe Tuholsky, scoring Zack Fuecker.
In the 4th, Cole Fuecker connected for his 2nd Homer of the game, another solo blast, to put the Steves ahead 8-4.
In the bottom of the 7th, a Drew Boland opposite field rbi single drove in Kody Ruedisili as the Lightning cut the lead to 8-5.
St. Stephen got that run right back in the top of the 8th when Joe Tuholsky sent the Steves 6th Homer of the game inside the right field foul pole for a solo shot to make it 9-5.
In the bottom of the 9th, Kody Ruedisili reached on an error and Jeremiah Piepkorn doubled to put men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Drew Boland then singled to right to score both Ruedisili and Piepkorn to make it 9-7 as Nisswa brought the tying run to the plate. Aaron Jenkins then reached on an error and the Lightning now had the tying run on base and the potential winning run at the plate. Reliever Jack Greenlun got Brett Jenkins to foul out to 1st baseman Jake Schelonka for the 2nd out and then fanned Chris Pederson to end the game and send the Steves to State as the #1 seed with a 1st round bye.
St. Stephen 9 12 3 – 9
Nisswa 7 11 1 – 7
WP: Jake Schelonka 4.2IP 0 runs 3 hits 4k 1bb 1hp
SV: Jack Greenlun 3.2IP 3 runs 5 hits 5k 0bb
Matt Young 0.2IP 4 runs 3 hits 0k 1bb 1hp
LP: Ben Dornseif 2.0IP 6 runs 6 hits 2k 0bb
Blaine Hardy 3.0IP 2 runs 4 hits 6k 0bb
Keaton Lingenfelter 4.0IP 1 run 2 hits 4k 1bb
Steves:
Jake Schelonka 2-5 Hr, 2B, rbi, 2 runs
Cole Fuecker 3-5 Hr(2), 2 rbi, 3 runs
Mat Meyer 2-5 Hr, 3 rbi, run
– Carter Kent 0-0
Zack Fuecker 2-3 Hr, hp, sb, bb, rbi, 2 runs
Jack Greenlun 0-5
Joe Tuholsky 2-4 Hr, 2 rbi, run
Matt Young 1-4
Andrew Wollak 0-4
Charlie Kent 0-4
Lightning:
Kody Ruedisili 2-5 2 runs
Nate DeChaine 0-4 bb, sb, run
Jeremiah Piepkorn 2-4 2B(2), 2 runs
Drew Boland 2-4 3 rbi
– Brady Vanek 0-0
Aaron Jenkins 1-5 rbi, run
Brett Jenkins 1-4 bb, rbi, run
Chris Pederson 2-5 2B, 2 rbi
Tyler Wittwer 0-4
Matt Casperson 1-4
