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Cardinal baseball plays on six-game winning streak

By
Jason Berghorst for the Star Herald

The Luverne High School baseball team tallied three more wins this week to move its record to 6-4 and extend its win streak to six. 
The Cards won two games in two towns on Tuesday, April 26, defeating Windom 11-1 in five innings in a late afternoon contest before stopping in Adrian on the way home to down the Adrian Area Dragons 10-7 in the night game. 
On Thursday, April 28, Luverne traveled to Worthington and defeated the Trojans 13-11 in eight innings. 
LHS was scheduled to play in Pipestone on Tuesday after this edition of the Star Herald went to press. 
The Cardinals will host St. James Area in a doubleheader at Redbird Field today (Thursday) and Marshall on Monday before traveling to Jackson for a twin bill against the Huskies May 12. 
 
Luverne 11, Windom 1
The Cardinals traveled to Windom for a 4 p.m. contest, the first of two games in two towns on the same day due to weather-related rescheduling. 
Luverne made the two-town doubleheader a little easier by winning the first game in only five innings, topping the Windom Eagles 11-1. 
LHS senior Casey Sehr pitched a complete one-hit game and struck out three and walked one. 
The Cards opened up the game early by scoring seven runs in the top of the second inning after the Eagles scored their only run of the game during the opening frame. 
Luverne went on to plate three more runs in the fourth inning and one in the fifth to trigger the ten-run rule and end the game 11-1 after five. 
Sehr and Connor Overgaard led the Cardinal offense in Windom.
Sehr had four hits, scored two runs and added two RBIs. Overgaard tallied three hits, had three RBIs and scored two runs. 
Both Sehr and Overgaard hit two doubles in the game. 
 
Luverne   0 7 0 3 1 x x  11
Windom   1 0 0 0 0 x x   1
 
                         AB  R     H    RBI
B Ripka            3     1     1     1
K Anderson     2     1     0     1
C Sehr              4     2     4     2
C Connell         2     1     0     0
C Overgaard    4     2     3     3
W Serie            3     1     1     0
J Stroh             1     2     0     0
R Sneller          3     0     1     0
E Domagala     3     1     1     0
K Buss             1     0     0     0
N Cole-Kraty    1     0     0     0
 
LHS 10, Adrian Area 7
Luverne won its second road game of the day when the Cards came out on top of Adrian Area 10-7 on April 26. It wasn’t as easy of a win as the first game of the day was, however. 
The Dragons held a 5-2 lead over LHS after two innings of play.
Lead-off batter Braydon Ripka started the offense for Luverne with a single, followed by a double by Kaden Anderson, the second Cardinal to bat. 
When Sehr reached base on an Adrian error, Ripka and Anderson both scored. 
The Cardinals then erupted for five runs in the top of the third frame. 
Sehr, Conner Connell and Overgaard all singled. Sehr scored on Overgaard’s single and Connell scored on a series of Dragon errors. 
A two-RBI single by Riley Sneller then scored Overgaard and Elliot Domagala, who was courtesy running for Jacob Stroh who had reached base on an error. 
The Cardinals’ fifth run of the inning came when Ripka hit an-RBI double to score Sneller to give LHS a 7-5 lead. 
Luverne added one more run in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings while Adrian scored one run each in the fifth and seventh innings to result in the 10-7 Luverne win. 
Zach DeBoer was the starting pitcher for Luverne. He pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up three hits and five runs while striking out one and walking two. 
Stroh replaced DeBoer on the mound during the second inning and pitched for 5 2/3 innings. Stroh gave up three hits and two runs and struck out eight Adrian batters. 
Sehr scored twice for the Cards and totaled two hits and three RBIs. Anderson had three hits and one run, while Sneller scored two runs and two RBIs in the game. 
 
Luverne   2 0 5 1 1 1 0  10
Adrian      3 2 0 0 1 0 1   7
 
                         AB  R     H    RBI
B Ripka            4     2     3     1
K Anderson     5     1     3     0
Casey Sehr      4     2     2     3
C Connell         5     1     1     0
C Overgaard    3     1     1     0
W Serie            4     0     0     1
J Stroh             4     0     0     0
Z DeBoer          3     0     0     0
R Sneller          3     2     1     2
E Domagala     0     1     0     0
Carter Sehr      0     0     0     0
 
LHS 13, WHS 11
It took eight innings for Luverne to win its sixth consecutive game when the Cardinals defeated the Worthington Trojans 13-11 Thursday. 
The longtime conference rivals were tied 8-8 at the end of the scheduled seven innings in Worthington. 
Connell started the scoring when he hit a three-run homerun in the top of the first inning.
The Trojans scored one run in the bottom of the first and a second run in the bottom of the second inning to cut Luverne’s lead to 3-2. 
Connell, a Cardinal sophomore, came back to bat and hit his second home run in as many at bats.
The second home run scored two runs in the top of the third inning to expand the LHS lead to 5-3 with Connell responsible for all five runs. 
Connell was also the starting pitcher for Luverne. He spent five innings on the mound while giving up four hits and three runs and striking out eight. 
“It definitely wasn’t my best day on the mound, but I managed to get some outs and Casey (Sehr) and the defense made a lot of good plays behind me,” Connell said. 
“It was nice giving myself some insurance runs right away, which we ended up needing at the end of the game.” 
The next runs came in the fifth inning when each team plated one run, and LHS added one more run in the top of the sixth inning to bring the score to 7-3. 
Worthington scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth, however, to take an 8-7 lead going into the seventh inning. 
The Cardinals tied the game in the top of the seventh when Connell scored his third run of the game on an Overgaard line drive single to center field. 
When Luverne held the Trojans scoreless in the bottom of the frame, the game went into extra innings. 
LHS scored early and often in the top of the eighth inning, scoring five runs. 
Ripka led off the inning with a single and advanced to second base when Anderson took first after being hit by a pitch. 
Sehr then hit a double to center field, which scored Ripka. 
Anderson crossed home plate when Overgaard reached base on an error. Sehr and Overgaard then scored on wild pitches before Patrick Kroski, courtesy running for Serie, scored on a sacrifice by Stroh. 
Worthington made it more interesting by scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth, but it wasn’t enough. 
Luverne left Worthington with a 13-11 extra-inning victory. 
Anderson replaced Connell on the mound after five innings and gave up six hits and eight runs (four earned) and struck out two. 
 
Luverne     3 0 2 0 1 1 1 5   13
Wgtn          1 1 0 0 1 5 0 3   11
 
                         AB  R     H    RBI
B Ripka            5     2     2     1
K Anderson     3     2     1     0
C Sehr              5     3     3     1
C Connell         4     3     2     5
C Overgaard    5     1     2     2
W Serie            5     0     1     1
J Stroh             4     0     1     1
E Domagala     2     0     0     0
R Sneller          4     1     1     0
P Kroski           0     1     0     0
N Cole-Kraty    1     0     1     0

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