The Luverne Redbirds split a pair of games this past week to bring their overall record to 15-5.
The Redbirds opened the week with a 5-2 victory over the Windom Pirates Wednesday, June 30.
Luverne then dropped a hard-fought extra innings affair to Brookings 6-5 on Thursday, July 1.
The Redbirds will be back on the diamond Wednesday, July 7, when they welcome Pipestone to Redbird Field. The Redbirds defeated the A’s earlier this season 5-2.
Luverne 5, Windom 2
The Pirates got the scoring starting with one run in the top of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead.
That lead was short-lived, as the Redbirds answered back with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 2-1 lead.
The Redbirds added one more run in the bottom of the third to push their lead to 3-1.
In the bottom of the fourth the Redbirds scored one run to make it a 4-1 ballgame.
Windom got one run back in the top of the fifth to make it a 4-2 ballgame. The Redbirds got that run back in the bottom half of the inning to make it a 5-2 game.
Jake Haugen picked up the win for the Redbirds. Haugen pitched the complete game and recorded nine strikeouts.
Newt Johnson and Codie Zeutenhorst both collected two hits for the Redbirds.
Windom 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Luverne 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 x
Hitting: Paquette 1-4; Johnson 2-4; S. Wenninger 1-3; Zeutenhorst 2-3; Lundgren 1-3
Doubles: Lundgren
RBI: Johnson; Zeutenhorst 2; Haugen
Brookings 6, Luverne 5
The Redbirds scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning to force extra innings in Brookings Thursday, July 1.
Unfortunately for the Luverne, the momentum they picked up from the ninth inning rally couldn’t carry them to victory, as they fell to Brookings 6-5 in 10 innings.
The Redbirds got on the board first with one run in the top of the first inning.
The bats for Brookings came alive in the bottom of the fifth inning as they scored four runs to claim a 4-1 lead.
Brookings added one more run in the bottom of the sixth to push their lead to 5-1.
The Redbirds were able to get back one run in the top of the seventh to trim the lead to 5-2.
In the top of the ninth, the Redbirds mounted a rally to tie the game at 5-5 and force extra innings after Brookings was unable to score the winning run in the bottom half of the ninth inning.
After failing to score a run in the top 0f the 10th, Luverne gave up the game-winning run in the bottom half of the inning.
Phil Paquette led the Redbirds with four hits, including a double.
Ben Serie drove in a team-leading three runs.
Luverne 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0
Brookings 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 1
Hitting: Lundgren 1-5; Paquette 4-5; Johnson 1-4; S. Wenninger 3-4; Serie 2-3; Haugen 1-4; Crabtree 2-5; Bartels 1-5
Doubles: Paquette
Triples: Serie
RBI: S. Wenninger; Serie 3