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The Luverne Redbirds qualified for their 12th Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament Friday.
The team swept the Milroy Irish in the best-of-three series to determine the third and final team to represent Region 13C at the state tournament.
Luverne came out on top 6-1 in the first game in Luverne Aug. 12 and won 12-3 at Irish Yard near Milroy Friday.
The Redbirds, now 17-4 on the season, open the state tournament Saturday at 11 a.m. in Springfield vs. the Mora Blue Knights (see related story).
Luverne 6, Milroy Irish 1
Ben Serie made the most of his first pitching start of the season during the region tournament Aug. 12.
Serie pitched nine complete innings to earn the 6-1 victory over the Milroy Irish in the first game of the best-of-three Region 13C third place series Aug. 12 at Redbird Field in Luverne.
“He’s pitched a lot of relief for us this season, but this was actually his first start,” said Brooks Maurer, Luverne player-manager.
“It’s not like he couldn’t have started plenty of times, but we have enough good pitching and we need him at second base, too.”
Serie struck out eight Irish batters and gave up only two walks, three hits and one run during the game.
“We knew if we could take care of business in the first game of the series, we would be good,” Serie said.
Luverne came out firing from the start, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Logan Norman got the Redbirds offense started with a single before Phil Paquette hit a two-run homerun, which excited the home crowd, but calmed the starting pitcher.
“After Phil hit that two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning, I was a lot more comfortable on the mound,” Serie said.
The next batter, Skyler Wenninger, hit a double before Serie came to the plate and hit another double that scored Wenninger to make the lead 3-0 at the end of the first inning.
Both teams were scoreless in the next four innings until Luverne added a run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Serie helped his cause on the mound from the plate again during the eighth inning.
With two Redbird teammates on base, he hit his second double of the game, this time scoring two more runs and running the score to 8-0
Milroy would score its only run in the top of the ninth inning for a final score of 6-1.
“It’s a lot easier to pitch well with a solid defense behind me,” Serie said.
Paquette led the offense for Luverne with two hits, two runs and two RBIs. Serie also had two hits and three RBIs and Norman scored two runs for the victors.
Maurer was relieved his team took care of business in the first game, unlike the series before against Hadley.
“It’s just so important to win the first game as it’s really hard to come back and win two in a row against good teams,” Maurer said.
Box score
Milroy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Luverne 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 x 6
AB R H BI
Lundgren 3 0 0 0
Norman 4 2 1 0
Paquette 4 2 2 2
S. Wenninger 3 1 1 0
Beers 3 0 0 0
Serie 4 0 2 3
Haugen 4 0 0 0
Nelson 2 1 1 0
Nath 3 0 1 0
Luverne 12, Milroy Irish 3
Luverne traveled to Irish Yard, the “Field of Dreams”-like ballpark surrounded by cornfields between Milroy and Vesta, Friday night for Game 2 of the Region 13C third-place series.
The Redbirds came out on top of the Milroy Irish 12-3 to win the best-of-three series and earn a return trip to the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball tournament.
Luverne loaded the bases in the first inning but did not score any runs.
The game remained scoreless until the top of the third inning when Luverne’s Phil Paquette hit a triple that scored two of the three Redbird runs that inning.
“It always helps a lot when you can score first,” said Redbird player-manager Brooks Maurer.
“I was a little nervous after we loaded the bases in the first inning and didn’t score,” he said, “so those first three runs helped a lot.”
Luverne added one more run in the fourth inning before the Irish scored their first run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The Redbirds then opened up the game with three big hits and five runs in the top of the sixth inning.
Paquette started the offensive eruption with a three-RBI double, which was immediately followed by a two-run homerun by Skyler Wenninger.
Ben Serie then hit a triple but was unable to score.
“Our batters were really pounding the ball,” Maurer said about the sixth inning.
Each team scored a single run in the seventh inning before Serie pounded a two-RBI double in the eighth inning that made the score 12-3, which would be the final score.
Jaxon Nelson scored three runs for the Redbirds and Derek Lundgren, Tyler Reisdorfer and Paquette plated two runs each.
Paquette tallied five RBIs in the game, while Wenninger had three and Serie had two.
Branden Alfson, a pitcher from the Pipestone A’s drafted by the Redbirds, started the game on the mound.
He struck out eight batters and gave up three walks, four hits and three runs in seven innings of work.
Reisdorfer pitched the final two innings for Luverne. He struck out four and gave up two walks, but no hits and no runs.
Box score
Luverne 0 0 3 1 0 5 1 2 0 12
Milroy 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
AB R H BI
Lundgren 4 2 1 0
Reisdorfer 5 2 2 0
Paquette 2 2 2 5
Maurer 1 0 1 0
S. Wenninger 5 1 3 3
Beers 5 1 0 0
Serie 6 0 2 2
Haugen 5 0 1 0
Nelson 4 3 2 0
Nath 3 0 0 0