Adam Schavey is safe at home against Jackson.

Fairmont’s Cale Steuber silenced the Blue Earth/Winnebago bats while the Fairmont batters produced eight runs in the first two innings on their way to a 13-0 triumph over No. 1 seeded BE/W on Sunday, Aug. 2, to claim the Senior League championship.

BE/W came into the final day of the four-day double elimination tournament needing to defeat Fairmont twice, but it was not to be.

“Six weeks ago it didn’t look like we would have a season,” BE/W coach Brent Legred told the crowd after the game. “But we (the coaches) managed to put together a modified schedule. Hopefully, this will be the first and only ‘league’ championship of its kind, and we can return to Legion baseball next summer.”

BE/W fell behind early and could muster only two hits against the left-handed pitching Steuber.

Fairmont defeated Madelia, Windom and Jackson to advance to the championship. BE/W lost to Jackson on Friday night, then beat Windom in the first game on Saturday. BE/W then met Jackson again Saturday night for the right to take on Fairmont on Sunday. BE/W won to eliminate Jackson from the tournament.

Logan O’Hara was one of the pitchers for Blue Earth/Winnebago during the playoff tournament.

Saturday’s Games

BE/W 14, Jackson 4

After losing to Jackson on Friday, BE/W scored 11 runs in the first two innings of their rematch on their way to a 14-4 victory in the final game Saturday evening, Aug 1.

BE/W scored six runs in the first inning without recording a hit. Jackson committed five errors to go along with one walk and two hit batsmen to account for all of BE/W’s runs in the inning.

BE/W added five more runs in the bottom of the second inning.

Logan O’Hara drew a walk to start the inning followed by Anders Fering getting hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second.

O’Hara scored on Koby Nagel’s single. Luke Mertens walked to load the bases.

Keegan O’Briens’ double brought home Fering and Nagel. Adam Schavey brought Mertens home on a groundout to the second baseman. A double by Kean Hicks brought O’Brien home with the fifth run of the inning.

The score was 12-4 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. Kyle Hagedorn drew a two-out walk to get things going for BE/W. Nagel just missed hitting a walk-off home run to left field. His double put runners on second and third. Mertens was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

O’Brien was also hit by a pitch to score Hagedorn and move the other runners up one base. With Nagel now on third, the Jackson pitcher uncorked a wild pitch allowing Nagel to score and give BE/W a 14-4, 10-run rule, victory over Jackson.

Nagel and O’Brien each pitched two innings with Hunter Bleess coming in to record the final three outs of the game.

BE/W 8, Windom 6

Blue Earth/Winnebago jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and then held off Windom to claim an 8-6 victory in the first game of the day Saturday, Aug. 1.

Both teams came into the elimination game with one loss so only the winner would advance.

O’Hara led off the bottom of the first inning with a double. He came home on a single by Hunter Bleess. Bleess stole second base and scored on a single by Karson Legred.

Anders Fering came to the plate and quickly got down two strikes in the count. The left-handed hitting Fering stroked the next pitch over the right field fence for a two-run home run and a 4-0 lead for BE/W.

Kean Hicks got BE/W back in business again in the bottom of the second inning with a lead-off double. The fleet-footed Hicks stole third base and scored on Adam Schavey’s sacrifice bunt to put the home team up 5-0.

Windom scored one run in the top of the third and added three runs in the fourth inning to cut BE/W’s lead to 5-4.

BE/W rebounded with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to go up 7-4.

Koby Nagel led off the inning with a bunt single and went to third on an errant pick-off attempt.

Nagel scored easily when Luke Mertens stroked a double to the outfield. A bunt single by Hicks moved Mertens to third base. Schavey hit his second sacrifice bunt of the game to score Mertens.

Windom scored twice in the top of the sixth to pull within one run of BE/W at 7-6 but BE/W scored once in the bottom of the inning to cap off the 8-6 victory.

O’Hara started on the mound and pitched 5 2/3 innings to get the win. The right-hander gave up six runs but only two of those were earned. He struck out eight and walked three batters.

Kyle Hagedorn gave up one hit in the final 1 1/3 innings to get the save.

O’Hara, Bleess, Mertens and Hicks each had two hits to pace BE/W’s 11-hit offensive output.

Friday’s Game

Jackson 5, BE/W 3

Extra Innings

Jackson scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning to win 5-3 over Blue Earth/Winnebago on Friday night, July, 31.

Jackson scored twice in the top of the second to go on top 2-0.

Koby Nagel singled in the bottom of the inning and used some alert base running to make it to third base. Nagel scored when Luke Mertens hit into a fielder’s choice.

Jackson scored one run in the top of the fourth inning to take a 3-1 lead.

Logan O’Hara reached base on a Jackson error in the bottom of the fifth inning and a home run off the bat of Karson Legred tied the game at 3-3.

The game remained tied until the top of the eighth when Jackson scored two runs and then held BE/W scoreless in the bottom of the inning to win the game 5-3.