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There was no home-field advantage for the Luverne Redbirds and Hadley Buttermakers during the Region 13C Final Four playoff series played Wednesday-Sunday.
Luverne, the tournament No. 2 seed, lost both games played in Luverne, and Hadley, the No. 6 seed, lost its home game Saturday.
Winning two of three games in the series, the Buttermakers qualified for the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament and will advance to play the Fairmont Martins in the Region 13C championship series this week.
Luverne will face the Milroy Irish, who were swept by Fairmont in the other Final Four series, in a best-of-three third place series (See related article).
The winner of the Redbirds-Irish series will fill the third and final state tournament spot from Region 13C. The losing team’s season will be over.
Hadley 4, Luverne 3
The Luverne Redbirds’ comeback efforts came up just short in Game 1 of their Region 13C Final Four series Wednesday, Aug. 5, in Luverne.
The visiting Hadley Buttermakers had a 4-1 lead when the Redbirds came to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Luverne’s first two batters, Declan Beers and Ben Serie, drew walks and advanced to second and third bases when Jake Haugen was out at first base.
Gaige Nath then hit an RBI single that scored Beers, and Serie scored on an error on the throw to make the score 4-3 with one out and the tying runner at first base.
Luverne was unable to score any additional runs, however. When the next two batters struck out, the game ended as a 4-3 Buttermaker victory.
The Redbirds were led at the plate by Nath, who had two hits and two RBIs in the game.
Phil Paquette, Codie Zeutenhorst and Serie had one hit each in the game, including a double by Serie.
Beers scored two of Luverne’s runs while Serie plated the third run.
Zeutenhorst pitched the first seven innings for the Redbirds. He struck out seven Hadley batters and gave up three walks, five hits and three runs.
Serie took the mound for the final two innings, striking out two and giving up one hit, one run and no walks.
Box score
Hadley 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 4
Luverne 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3
AB R H BI
Lundgren 4 0 0 0
Norman 5 0 0 0
Paquette 4 0 1 0
S. Wenninger 2 0 0 0
Zeutenhorst 4 0 1 0
Beers 2 2 0 0
Serie 3 1 1 0
Haugen 4 0 0 0
Nath 3 0 2 2
Luverne 8, Hadley 2
Luverne traveled to Hadley Saturday in a must-win game in the best-of-three series against the Buttermakers.
The Redbirds evened the series with an 8-2 road victory behind solid pitching and advantageous play at the plate.
Brandan Alfson, whom the Redbirds drafted from the Pipestone A’s for the playoffs, pitched a dominating complete game. He struck out 11 and gave up one walk, six hits and two earned runs.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in our league,” said Luverne player-manager Brooks Maurer.
“He gave up three of the six hits, and both runs, in the first inning; after that he threw lights out the rest of the game,” Maurer said.
Luverne batters helped Alfson at the plate as well.
Declan Beers and Ben Serie had back-to-back RBI doubles in the sixth inning. Beers totaled three RBIs in the contest.
Logan Norman hit a lead-off homerun in the ninth inning before Skyler Wenninger and Beers hit back-to-back doubles later the same inning.
Jaxon Nelson, who is playing amateur baseball between his freshman and sophomore seasons on the University of Minnesota hockey team, had three hits, scored one run and added one RBI for the Redbirds.
Box score
Luverne 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 3 8
Hadley 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
AB R H BI
Lundgren 5 0 2 2
Norman 5 1 1 1
Paquette 5 1 2 0
S. Wenninger 4 2 2 0
Beers 5 1 2 3
Serie 5 1 2 1
Haugen 3 1 0 0
Nelson 5 1 3 1
Nath 3 0 0 0
Brown 1 0 0 0
Hadley 6, Luverne 0
The Hadley Buttermakers traveled to Redbird Field in Luverne Sunday afternoon for the third and decisive game in the best-of-three Region 13C Final Four playoff series.
The home team was unable to produce any runs in the game, falling to Hadley 6-0 and losing the series 2-1.
Luverne batters loaded the bases in both the first and third innings, but were unable to plate any runs.
“Our biggest issue was not enough hits when runners were in position to score,” Redbirds player-manager Brooks Maurer said.
“We just didn’t string two or three hits together after walks or anything to take advantage of having runners on base,” he added.
Hadley’s Jacob Van Dam, who also plays on the Luverne 19U team, opened the first inning with a homerun on the first pitch of the game to put Hadley up 1-0.
The Buttermakers added two more runs in the fourth inning and plated three insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning.
Jake Haugen had a double in the seventh inning and Phil Paquette added a double in the eighth, but neither hit led to runs for Luverne.
Derek Lundgren took the loss for Luverne on the mound. He pitched 3 2/3 innings, striking out four and giving up two walks, five hits and three runs.
Haugen replaced Lundgren for the final 5 2/3 innings. He struck out three batters and gave up three walks, four hits and three runs.
Box score
Hadley 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 6
Luverne 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
AB R H BI
Lundgren 3 0 1 0
Norman 2 0 0 0
Paquette 4 0 1 0
S. Wenninger 3 0 1 0
Zeutenhorst 3 0 1 0
Nelson 1 0 0 0
Beers 4 0 0 0
Serie 4 0 0 0
Haugen 4 0 1 0
Nath 3 0 1 0