Redbirds run record to 14-3

The Luverne Redbirds amateur baseball team won three games this week and are now on a six-game winning streak.
Luverne defeated Hadley 9-3 on June 23 at home before defeating both Tracy 15-4 and Ruthton 2-1 on the road Sunday.
“We have been playing some good baseball lately,” Redbirds player-manager Brooks Maurer said. “If our bats go cold, we’ve had some guys step up and pitch really well.”
The local amateurs hosted Windom Wednesday (June 30) and are scheduled to travel to Brookings tonight (July 1).
The Redbirds will host the Pipestone A’s at Redbird Field at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 7.
“We have some really tough games coming up over the next two weeks,” Maurer said. “It’s good to be on a winning streak going into those games.”
 
Luverne 9, Hadley 3
The Hadley Buttermakers came to Luverne June 23 and were handed a 9-3 defeat by the home Redbirds.
Hadley scored first in the top of the second inning, but Luverne answered with two runs in the third inning before adding three more in the sixth inning to open up the contest in the home team’s favor.
Jake Haugen pitched eight innings for the Redbirds, striking out 10 Hadley batters. Haugen gave up 10 hits and three runs.
Tyler Reisdorfer pitched the final inning for Luverne, striking out two and giving up no hits.
At the plate, the Redbirds were led by Derek Lundgren with four hits. Lundgren also scored a run and added an RBI.
Ethan Beyer added three hits for Luverne, with two RBIs, and scored one run.
Skyler Wenninger and Codie Zeutenhorst plated two runs each for the Redbirds.
 
Box Score
Hadley                0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0     3
Luverne              0 0 2 0 0 3 1 3 0     9
 
                                  AB  R  H  BI
Nath                          4     0   0   0
Paquette                   5     1   1   1
Johnson                    3     1   1   1
S. Wenninger            4     2   2   1
Zeutenhorst              4     2   1   1
Haugen                     5     1   2   1
Lundgren                  5     1   4   1
C. Wenninger            4     0   0   0
Maurer                       1     0   0   0
Beyer                        4     1   3   2
 
Luverne 15, Tracy 4
Luverne traveled to Tracy Sunday afternoon for the first of two road games played that day.
The Redbirds had productive bats in the 15-4 victory over the Express in seven innings.
Ben Serie and Lundgren each produced three hits, one RBI and scored three runs in the contest.
Wenninger also plated three runs off of two hits. Haugen and Colby Crabtree had two hits apiece, with Crabtree adding three RBIs.
Zeutenhorst pitched the complete seven-inning game for Luverne.
 
Box Score
Luverne               3 0 2 4 3 0 3     15
Tracy                  3 1 0 0 0 0 0       4
 
                                  AB  R  H  BI
B. Serie                     4     4   3   1
Lundgren                  5     3   3   1
Wenninger                3     3   2   0
Zeutenhorst              5     2   1   1
Haugen                     5     2   2   1
Crabtree                    5     0   2   3
Maurer                       4     0   1   0
Buss                          4     1   1   0
W. Serie                    4     0   0   0
 
Luverne 2, Ruthton 1
Luverne completed its second of two games in two towns on Sunday by defeating Ruthton 2-1.
 Will Serie, who plays most of his summer baseball on the Luverne Junior Legion team, made his Redbirds debut in the Sunday games.
“We were short players at the last minute on Sunday and Ben (Will’s older brother) said Will was home, so we went and picked him up,” Maurer said.
Will Serie made the most of the opportunity by leading the team with two hits in his second game.
The Redbirds’ two runs were scored by Zeutenhorst and Maurer.
Maurer pitched the entire contest for Luverne. He struck out eight and gave up three hits and run.
 
Box Score
Luverne             0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0       2
Ruthton             0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0       1
 
                                  AB  R  H  BI
B. Serie                     3     0   0   1
Lundgren                  4     0   0   0
Wenninger                3     0   0   0
Zeutenhorst              3     1   0   0
Haugen                     3     0   1   0
Crabtree                    4     0   1   1
Maurer                       3     1   0   0
Buss                          3     0   0   0
W. Serie                    3     0   2   0