DRS season enters final two weekends

DRS season enters final two weekends With just two weekends remaining in the Dakota-Rice- Scott League regular season, the surging New Prague Orioles have won seven games in a row and have moved into the top four of the league standings. New Market continues to lead the league with an 18-1 record, while St. Patrick has solidified its hold on a playoff bye.

All three teams - New Market, St. Patrick and New Prague - won two games last week, while Montgomery, in third place in the league, lost its only game last week. Prior Lake did not play a game last week, but dropped out of the top four. Lonsdale also won two games last week, but dropped a pair as well.

Most league teams have four or five games to be played in the final 10 days of the season and will be jockeying for an advantage come playoff time. The top four teams in the standings get first-round byes, while the remaining eight will be paired off in best-of-three series to determine the other four teams in the Region 3C double- elimination playoffs.

Last week’s results

Wednesday, July 3 Orioles 6, Coyotes 5 New Prague trailed during the middle parts of the game but mounted a late-inning comeback to tie the game before winning in the 10th inning. James Fuerniss went the first six innings for the Orioles, pitching well, but left trailing 3-2. The Coyotes would score another two runs off of reliever Max Fierst to take a 5-2 lead going into the eighth inning. The Orioles scored two runs in the eighth to get within one and then were able to scratch another run across in the ninth to tie it. In the bottom of the 10th Simon Kajer led off with a walk, Simon Solheid sacrificed him to second and Fierst drove him home with a single to right. For the Coyotes, Chris Isensee started and pitched seven strong innings, striking out six. Andy Lazzari had two hits, including a double. For the Orioles, Justin Novak had three hits and Austin Bachman had two hits and three RBIs. Fierst was the winning pitcher, Jesse Nystrom took the loss.

Warriors 6, Aces 1 The annual July 3rd-4th rivalry between Veseli and Lonsdale kicked off Wednesday night when the Warriors traveled to Lonsdale to take on the Aces. It was a tight, well-fought battle by both teams all night. Matt Perkinson threw a three-hit complete game and took the win. Joe Sabal takes the tough loss for the Aces while going seven strong innings. The Warriors offense was led by Tyler Busch and Drew Picka who had three hits each. Mason Mayer also added two hits and a stolen base. Lonsdale’s three hits came off the bats of Jack Skluzacek, Devin Vosejpka and Thomas Hopper. Veseli won the game 6-1.

Thursday, July 4 Aces 18, Warriors 6 Ross Beumer had three hits with a home run and five RBIs and Jack Skluzacek had three hits and three RBIs to lead Lonsdale to an 18-6 July 4 victory over Veseli. Isaac Pint, Tyler Milford, and Ross Beumer combined on the eight-hitter with Milford picking up the win. Phil Tisdel, Jordan Yetzer, and Marty Kalina each had three hits for Lonsdale. Corey Friedges and Cody Shimota combined to go 3 for 8 with four runs scored for the Warriors. Will Forberg got tagged with the loss.

Saturday, July 6 Aces 11, Sox 5 Marty Kalina was 4-for-5 with three runs scored and Devin Vosejpka and Jordan Yetzer each had three hits to lead Lonsdale to an 11-5 win over Webster in Lonsdale Saturday night. Cade Readmond and Marty Kalina made their pitching debuts, combining with Ross Beumer and Tyler Milford for the Aces. Gage Bergman and Junior Chalmers were each 4-for-5 with a run scored for the Sox. Jeremy Wieland pitched four innings in the loss for the Sox.

Muskies 10, Saints 2 Andy Henkemeyer homered twice and had another hit, along with four RBIs and Nick Rost picked up the win as New Market defeated St. Benedict 10-2. Rost pitched seven innings, scattering seven hits and walking just one. Cole Minnick and Andrew Huss each had three hits for St. Benedict. Michael Lambrecht took the loss.

Irish 7, Lakers 4 St. Patrick defeated Faribault 7-4 Saturday at Bonin Field. Phillip Garcia picked up the win on the mound, pitching into the sixth before being relieved by Bill Dunker and Zach Seurer, who picked up the save. Leading the offense for St. Patrick was Jordan Goracke who was 3-for-3 and Ryan Friedges who was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two doubles. Matt Ambroz, Seth Ambroz and Mathew Pexa had 2 hits apiece. Matt Lane and Dylan O’Neil had a pair of hits each for the Lakers. Egan Bonde went six innings in taking the loss.

Sunday, July 7 Saints 13, Aces 5 The St. Benedict Saints defeated the Lonsdale Aces 13- 5 on Sunday. The Saints were up 4-0 after just four batters as Zach Bakko and Andrew Huss homered in the first inning. St. Benedict had 15 hits. Huss had 7 RBI for St Benedict. Jeremy Heitkamp, Tanner Oakes, and Trey Kocher pitched three innings each. Joe Sabal took the loss for the Aces.

Orioles 8, Sox 4 For the second consecutive game it would take the Orioles 10 innings to reach the victory and New Prague defeated Webster 8-4. New Prague led most of the way after the first two innings with RBI singles from Collin Dorzinski and Justin Novak. James Fuerniss hit a two- run home run in the third inning to give New Prague a 4-1 lead. After that Sox starter Jared Opsahl would settle down and pitch well going nine innings. In the eighth inning Oriole starter Zach Sirek ran into some trouble and Webster tied the game. Reliever Chad Skluzacek put out the fire and pitched the ninth and 10th innings. The Orioles scored four in the 10th off of a triple from Eric Wagner, a double from Fuerniss and singles from Collin Dorzinski and Spencer Kajer. Fuerniss had three RBIs and Dorzinski two. Adam Schmitz had a big game for the Sox with three hits and a stolen base, and Nick Hanson had a double and single. Skluzacek was the winning pitcher and John Barten was the losing pitcher.

Muskies 8, Mallards 2 New Market defeated Montgomery 8-2 Sunday. Monty took an early 1-0 lead in the second thanks to an Eric Iverson sacrifice fly. New Market answered right back, with Nick Rost hitting a solo homer to right. Monty snatched the lead back in the fifth thanks to a Jake McCabe RBI single, but in the bottom of the inning Nate Rost came up with one on and two outs and proceeded to drill one over the left-center field fence to give the Fish a 3-2 lead. New Market added five more runs over the next four innings, the key knock being a two-RBI pinch-hit single from Joe McKibben in the sixth. Tony Vocca took over in relief in the fifth and shut the Mallards down, allowing one hit and fanning five over 4-2/3 innings and picking up the win in the process. Scott Lyden, Vocca, and both Nate and Nick Rost had at least two hits apiece.

Irish 10, Warriors 9 In a game that featured 22 hits, 19 walks, six batters hit by pitches and six errors, the St. Patrick Irish picked up an ugly 10-9 win over Veseli. Veseli led into the bottom of the eighth when Seth Ambroz took a pitch deep to left center field to take the lead. The Warriors tied it in the ninth but couldn’t hold the Irish off in the 10th when Matt Ambroz hit a bases-loaded walkoff single. Zach Seurer ended up the winning pitcher. St. Patrick had three homers, from Jack Friedges, Matt Ambroz and Seth Ambroz. Tyler Busch homered for Veseli. Veseli’s Cory Friedges had three hits and three RBIs. The Irish were led by Jace Westman who was 3-for-5. Kyle Rhodus and Matt Ambroz each had two hits.

Lakers 3, Coyotes 2 Matt Lane pitched eight innings for Faribault in a 3-2 win over Shakopee. Joe Grote had two 2 hits and an RBI and got the win in relief. Dylan Valentyn won the game with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.