The Luverne Cardinal baseball team ended its season with a loss in the fourth round of the Section 3AA tournament in Marshall Saturday.
Luverne, which entered the tournament as the fourth seed and won two elimination bracket games, finished the 2015 campaign with a record of 11-12.
Marshall 6, Luverne 4
Facing the top-seeded Marshall Tigers on their home turf at Legion Field, the Cardinals fell behind 2-0 in the first inning.
Luverne’s offense erupted in the fourth inning with six Cardinals getting on base and four runs scored.
Connor Hoffman began the inning with a single and Andrew Verhey reached first base on a Marshall error.
Connor Crabtree then produced a single which allowed Hoffman to score. Jaxon Nelson followed with a double that sent Verhey across home plate.
Joe Sommers batted in two more runs with a double to end the scoring for LHS in the inning.
Marshall, technically playing as the away team in the game, scored two more runs in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game.
The Cardinals had opportunities to break the tie in the bottom of the fifth inning but could not plate any additional runs.
Hoffman reached base after being hit by a pitch and Cole Bosch and Crabtree hit singles to load the bases with one out.
Nelson hit a single, but an interference call at second base resulted in an out, denied the run from scoring and ended the inning with the game remaining tied.
The Tigers broke the tie with a single in the sixth inning that scored the last two runs of the game.
Tommy Vajgrt pitched the first six innings for the Cards before Crabtree and Nick Overgaard each pitched one inning of relief.
Box score AB R H BI
Hoffman 3 1 1 0
Bosch 4 0 1 0
Verhey 3 1 0 0
Crabtree 3 1 2 1
Nelson 4 1 1 2
Vajgrt 2 0 0 0
Sommers 4 0 1 1
Sandbulte 2 0 0 0
Suelter 3 0 0 0
Luverne 11, NL-S 5
The Cardinals posted their second consecutive win in an elimination game when they topped New London-Spicer by six runs Thursday in Marshall.
LHS trailed 2-1 after two innings of play, but the Cardinals outscored the Wildcats 10-3 the rest of the way to win handily.
Luverne moved in front 5-2 with a four-run rally in the top of the third featuring RBI singles from Jaxon Nelson and Connor Sandbulte and a run-scoring double by Connor Crabtree.
NL-S plated singles runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth frames, but Luverne scored twice in the fourth, three times in the fifth and one in the sixth to pull away from the Wildcats.
Andrew Verhey received an RBI for a fielder’s choice and another run scored on an error during the fourth inning.
Connor Hoffman singled home two runs and Sandbulte chipped in an RBI single during the three-run fifth.
Tommy Vajgrt registered an RBI with a fielder’s choice when LHS scored its final run in the sixth.
Crabtree gave the Cards a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with a run-scoring triple.
Hoffman tossed all seven innings to get the win. He yielded six hits.
Box score AB R H BI
Hoffman 5 1 2 2
Bosch 3 3 2 0
Verhey 4 2 1 1
Crabtree 3 1 2 2
Nelson 2 1 1 1
Vajgrt 3 1 0 1
Sommers 2 0 0 0
Suelter 2 0 0 0
Sandbulte 4 1 2 2
Olson 2 1 1 0
Luverne 5, JCC 0
A big night for senior Crabtree ended in victory when the Cardinals defeated the Huskies by five runs during an elimination game staged in Windom May 27.
Crabtree drove in two runs at the plate and pitched seven innings of no-hit, no-run ball to lead LHS to victory.
Crabtree fanned nine batters, walked three and hit one batter with a pitch during his complete game appearance.
He helped his own cause by doubling home two runs during a three-run rally in the top half of the first inning.
Omar Martinez, Crabtree’s courtesy runner, scored the third run of the inning on an error.
LHS capped the scoring with a two-run third frame.
Nelson drew a walk and scored on a throwing error and Jakob Olson delivered an RBI single for the Cards in the third.
Box score AB R H BI
Hoffman 3 0 1 0
Bosch 3 1 1 0
Verhey 4 1 1 0
Crabtree 4 0 1 2
Martinez 0 1 0 0
Nelson 3 1 1 0
Vajgrt 4 0 2 0
Sommers 3 0 1 0
Overgaard 0 0 0 0
Sandbulte 3 0 0 0
Olson 3 0 1 1
Behrend 0 0 0 0