By John RittenhouseThe Luverne VFW baseball team passed its first test of the Third District Southern Division Playoffs Monday at Redbird Field.Playing Fulda in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament, Luverne moved into the winner’s bracket with a 12-2 victory.The win allows the 19-9 Cardinals to host another game when the tournament resumes tonight. Luverne tangles with Worthington at 6:30 p.m.It looked like the Cardinals would be in for a challenge when Fulda plated one run in the top of the first to gain an early lead, but Luverne assumed control of the contest moments later.With an offense led by two-RBI efforts from Zach Olson and Brent Dinger, the Cards scored nine runs in the first two innings to set the stage for a five-inning win.Dinger tripled home one run, Olson singled home another and Zach Clark drew a bases-loaded walk to highlight a four-run rally in the bottom of the first.A five-run surge featuring RBI doubles from Phil Paquette and Olson extended Luverne’s lead to 9-1.Dinger reached base on an error and scored on an error in the third inning, and Chris Den Hoed slapped an RBI single in the fourth to make it an 11-1 game before Fulda scored its final run in the top of the fifth.Dinger ended the contest when he cracked a lead-off home run over the left-field fence in the bottom of the fifth.Paquette tossed four innings of one-run, 10-strikeout ball to pick up the win. Adam Ossefoort surrendered one run and fanned three batters while pitching the fifth inning.Box score AB R H BIHoff 4 1 1 0Den Hoed 4 1 1 1Paquette 4 1 1 1Dinger 4 3 2 2Olson 3 2 2 2Skattum 3 2 0 0Ossefoort 1 0 0 0Altman 1 0 0 0Graphenteen 1 1 1 0D.Van Santen 1 1 1 0Clark 1 0 0 1Christensen 1 0 0 0