By virtue of three wins in their last four ballgames, the Winnebago/Blue Earth Legion Post 82 and 89 have wrapped up their regular season record with a 10-5 mark, and will head to sub-district competition as the third seed.

On Thursday, July 5, Winnebago/BE took both games of a home double-header against St. Clair, 8-6 and 12-3.

The team was back in action on Monday, July 9, as they split two games of a double-header in St. James at the newly renovated Veterans Field.

In the first game, Winnebago/BE’s Zac Schonrock led the way on the mound in a 7-0 shutout victory. Schonrock needed just 80 pitches to complete all seven innings.

Allowing just three hits and one walk in the game, Schonrock faced the minimum three batters in five of his seven innings on the rubber. Head coach Steve Sonnicksen said afterwards that Schonrock’s knuckleball had St. James batters off balance throughout the game.

“As a knuckleballer, when he throws it fast, the ball can get on top of hitters in a hurry because they aren’t used to seeing it at that speed,” Sonnicksen explained. “Our defense also helped with three double plays, so Zac was able to pitch to contact and let the defense do its job.”

Offensively, Winnebago/Blue Earth was led by Hunter Bleess, who collected three hits and scored a run. Joe Schavey recorded two hits and scored a pair of runs as well. Schonrock, Karson Legred, Gavin Storbeck and Brayden Barnett each contributed with a hit apiece.

In the second game against St. James, Winnebago/BE was shutout by a final score of 3-0. Koby Nagel started the game for Winnebago/Blue Earth, and lasted five strong innings, allowing just one run. Legred and Storbeck also pitched an inning apiece for Winnebago/BE.

After completing the regular season, coach Sonnicksen is looking forward to a fresh start in the postseason.

“I always expect to have a good run, but seedings don’t really mean that much because everyone is zero-zero when the games start,” Sonnicksen says. “We’ve had success even when we were the lower seed in the past.”

As the third seed in the six team sub-district field, Winnebago/Blue Earth took on Minnesota Lake in Truman on Friday, July 13. Results from that game will be available in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.