Redbirds fall to Eagle Lake at State Tournament

After cruising through the Region 13C tournament to earn a first-round bye at the state tournament, the Luverne Redbirds’ season ended sooner than the players and fans expected Sunday night.
The Redbirds lost 3-0 to the Eagle Lake Expos in Round 2 of the Class C Minnesota State Amateur Baseball tournament in Chaska.
This was the Redbirds’ 13th overall and third consecutive appearance at the state classic.
The game, originally scheduled for Saturday night, was postponed to Sunday night because of storms Saturday night.
Luverne’s Jake Haugen started the game on the mound for the Redbirds and was the losing pitcher. He pitched five innings, striking out seven and giving up three runs off six hits.
After Haugen threw six consecutive strikes to open the game with two strikeouts, the Redbird defense made its first of five errors in the game, allowing Eagle Lake to get its first base runner.
The base runner was unable to score and the game remained scoreless and hitless during the first two innings.
In the top of the third inning, Luverne had two more fielding errors, allowing Expo runners to get to first and third bases with two out. When Haugen struck out the next batter, Eagle Lake stranded two runners on base and the game remained 0-0.
A fence-reaching double by Derek Lundgren in the bottom of the third inning was the first hit by the Redbirds, but Luverne was unable to score the run.
Eagle Lake scored the game’s first two runs in the top of the fourth inning. The Expos had three hits in the inning and left two on base while Luverne added a fourth fielding error.
The Redbirds were able to get two runners on base in the bottom of the fourth stanza, but were again unable to score a run.
The Expos scored their third and final run of the game after gaining three more hits in the fifth inning.
Brandon Aflson, the Redbirds’ draftee from the Pipestone A’s, replaced Haugen as pitcher at the start of the sixth inning. Alfson struck out the first five batters he faced and eight Expos overall.
In the eighth inning, Luverne got three runners on base after a walk to Newt Johnson, a single by Skyler Wenninger and a walk to Declan Beers, but again the Redbirds were unable to cross home plate.
The Redbirds made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Logan Norman headed to first base after earning a walk. Gaige Nath was then hit by a pitch and Luverne had runners on first and second base with only one out.
Lundgren then hit a single to shortstop, and Kendall Meyer, running for Norman, was tagged out at third base.
With runners at first and second bases and two outs, Phil Paquette earned a walk to load the bases and bring the winning run to bat.
A strikeout to Johnson by Expos pitcher Dalton Grose, a draftee from the Waterville Indians who pitched the complete scoreless game, was the third out of the inning, stranding three runners on base and ending the game and season for the Redbirds.
Luverne ended the game with only three hits, one each for Lundgren, Wenninger and Beers.
While the season didn’t end the way the Redbirds had hoped, team player-manager Brooks Maurer remained positive.
“This year was a lot of fun,” Maurer said. “A 26-6 overall record is nothing to be ashamed of even if our season ended earlier than we would have liked.”
“Jake and Brandon threw really well for us, and it was too bad our defense and hitting couldn’t have been as good,” Maurer said, “but that’s baseball sometimes!”
 
Statistics for each player
(AB, R, H, BI)
 
Lundgren  5. 0. 1. 0
Paquette 4. 0. 0. 0
Johnson 4. 0. 0. 0
Wenninger 4. 0. 1. 0
Beers 1. 0. 1. 0
Serie 4. 0. 0. 0
Zeutenhorst  4. 0. 0. 0
Meyer 3. 0. 0. 0
Norman 0. 0. 0. 0
Nath 2. 0. 0. 0