The Luverne Cardinals will need three wins if they’re going to reach the 1A State Baseball Tournament this season.
The Cardinals will need to defeat Paynesville on Tuesday, June 8, in Marshall to set up a date with Atwater Cosmos-Grove City on June 10. If the Cardinals defeat Paynesville, they’ll have to defeat ACGC twice in order to win the section championship and qualify for the state tournament.
The Cardinals got into this position by defeating Fairmont 8-4 on Tuesday, June 1, in Luverne.
Luverne then fell to ACGC 7-2, in Marshall on Saturday, June 5.
LHS 8, Fairmont 4
In the battle of the Cardinals, it was Luverne coming out on top with an 8-4 victory.
Fairmont struck first in the opening inning by scoring a run to take an early 1-0 lead.
Luverne scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 3-1 lead.
In the bottom of the third inning, Luverne tacked on four more runs to build a 7-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Luverne hit back-to-back one out singles to put runners on first and second base.
Connor Connell was then hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.
Riley Sneller hit a sac-fly to drive in a run to push Luverne’s lead to 8-1.
In the top of the fifth, a Fairmont batter hit a two-out RBI single to make it an 8-2 Luverne lead.
With two outs in the top of the fifth, Fairmont hit a two-run, two-out double to trim Luverne’s lead to 8-4.
In the top of the sixth, Luverne set down Fairmont in order. Connell recorded two strikeouts in the inning.
Cade Wenninger hit a pair of doubles and drove in three runs for Luverne.
Bailey Cowell and Sneller both drove in a pair of runs for Luverne.
Connell pitched two innings in relief and recorded three strikeouts.
Fairmont 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 4 7 0
LHS 0 3 4 1 0 0 x 811 3
Hitting: Cowell 1-5; Wenninger 3-4; Beyer 1-5; Sehr 1-3; Overgaard 1-2; Ripka 1-3; Connell 1-2; Anderson 2-3
Doubles: Sehr, Connell, Cowell, Anderson; Wenninger 2
RBI: Wenninger 3; Cowell 2; Sneller 2; Anderson 1
ACGC 7, LHS 2
Luverne pushed across a run in the top of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead over Atwater Cosmos-Grove City Saturday at home.
In the top of the third inning, ACGC team members started to shift the momentum of the game when their starting pitcher struck out the side.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the third inning, ACGC hit a two-run single to take a 2-1 lead.
Connell recorded a strikeout to end the inning.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Luverne issued four walks, including walking in two runs. ACGC scored four runs in the inning to push their lead to 6-1.
In the top of the fifth inning, ACGC’s starting pitcher struck out the side again to keep the lead at 6-1.
The Cardinals scored one run in the bottom of the sixth to trim ACGC’s lead to 6-2.
Luverne loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh inning, but they failed to scrape across a run.