The Luverne amateur baseball team went 1-1 during two home games this week.
The Redbirds lost to the Sioux Falls Brewers 6-2 Friday night before defeating the Pipestone A’s 16-8 Sunday afternoon.
The 12-2 Redbirds won the Gopher League and earned the top seed and a bye for the first round of the First Nite/Gopher League playoff tournament this week.
Luverne will open its playoff season on July 29 against an opponent to be determined.
SF Brewers 6, Luverne 2
Luverne hosted one of South Dakota’s premier amateur baseball teams at Redbird Field Friday night.
The Sioux Falls Brewers are the defending Class A state champions in South Dakota town team baseball.
“They have a few players who played in the minors and I believe all of their players played some in college,” said Brooks Maurer, Luverne player-manager.
The Brewers jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first three innings before Luverne scored its two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The score remained 6-2 in favor of Sioux Falls for the remainder of the nine-inning contest.
Gaige Nath, Skyler Wenninger, Codie Zeutenhorst, Tyler Reisdorfer and Jake Haugen each had one hit for the Redbirds.
Wenninger and Zeutenhorst scored Luverne’s two runs.
Derek Lundgren pitched the first six innings for Luverne. He struck out three batters and gave up six walks, seven hits and six runs.
Reisdorfer pitched the final three innings, striking out two and issuing two walks and two hits.
Box Score
Sioux Falls 1 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
Luverne 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2
AB R H BI
Lundgren 4 0 0 0
Nath 4 0 1 0
S. Wenninger 3 1 1 0
Zeutenhorst 3 1 1 0
Bartels 1 0 0 0
Reisdorfer 4 0 1 1
Serie 3 0 0 0
Haugen 3 0 1 1
C. Wenninger 2 0 0 0
Beyer 1 0 0 0
Crabtree 3 0 0 0
Luverne 16, Pipestone 8
The Redbirds came out on top 16-8 when they hosted the Pipestone A’s Sunday afternoon for their regular season finale.
Luverne had a very balanced scoring attack. The hosts scored three runs in the first inning, two in the third, one in the fourth, four in the fifth, two in the sixth, three in the seventh and one in the eighth.
Skyler Wenninger led the Redbirds at the plate with three hits, three runs and two RBIs.
Ben Serie and Gaige Nath also scored three runs for Luverne. Serie, Nath and Codie Zeutenhorst added two hits each.
Nath hit two doubles and batted in two runners.
Derek Lundgren and Colby Crabtree had 3 RBIs each. Crabtree’s was a bases-clearing double during the seventh inning.
Box Score
Pipestone 4 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 8
Luverne 3 0 2 1 4 2 3 1 x 16
AB R H BI
Lundgren 5 0 1 3
Norman 3 2 1 1
Paquette 6 2 1 0
S. Wenninger 5 3 3 2
Serie 4 3 2 1
Haugen 3 2 1 0
Connor Crabtree 2 0 0 0
Zeutenhorst 3 1 2 1
Brown 2 0 0 0
Maurer 1 0 0 1
Bartels 1 0 0 0
Nath 4 3 2 2
Colby Crabtree 1 0 1 3
C. Wenninger 1 0 1 1