Soren Fering makes solid contact and sends the baseball soaring, and watches it go over the fence for a home run in the bottom of the fifth inning during BE/W’s 15-12 loss to Minnesota Lake.

The third time was the charm for the Minnesota Lake Legion baseball team.

Having been beaten twice during the regular season by Blue Earth/Winnebago, Minnesota Lake got their revenge by defeating BE/W 15-12 in action in the Sub-Sub-State District C playoffs at Veterans Field on Thursday evening, July 6.

Minnesota Lake will now face the winner of the game between the USC Legions and St. James, which also played on July 6.

Meanwhile, BE/W moves to the losers’ bracket of the double elimination tournament in the hopes of battling back to be one of the two teams to advance to the Sub-State Playoffs.

Three must have been Minnesota Lake’s lucky number against BE/W. Minnesota Lake scored in five different innings and they scored three runs in each of the five innings.

After a scoreless first inning, Minnesota Lake took advantage of two walks and BE/W miscues to push three runs across the plate.

BE/W kept their heads up and responded with seven runs in the bottom of the second inning.

A walk to Nick Barke and singles by Abe Kokos and Taylor Davids loaded the bases. Noah Dahl grounded out to the shortstop to score Barke and leave runners on first and third base.

A walk to Carson Sturtz filled the bases again and brought up the top of the order.

Soren Fering walked to drive in the second run of the inning and Caleb Langager’s single tied the game at 3-3.

A single by Parker Meyers drove in two more runs. Logan O’Hara reached on a walk and Barke laced a double to the outfield to score Meyers and O’Hara with the final runs of the inning.

After four complete innings, BE/W was still on top 9-6. However, Minnesota Lake scored three runs in each of the last three innings while holding BE/W to a total of three runs over the final three innings.

BE/W outhit Minnesota Lake 13-10 during the game but six costly errors proved to be more than the previously unbeaten BE/W team could overcome.

The pitchers from both teams struggled to find the strike zone and each squad issued 10 walks.

Dahl started on the mound for BE/W and took the loss after pitching four-and-one-third innings. Fering, Langager and Barke all pitched in relief.

BE/W hit the ball well and collected six extra-base hits including a home run by Fering, two doubles by Barke along with doubles by Davids, Meyers and Peyton O’Hara.

Meyers was 2-for-4 at the plate with three runs scored. Fering and Barke each drove in two runs. Taylor Davids had three hits and Kokos had two.

BE/W played Welcome/Sherburn at 2 p.m. on Friday. If they won that game they played again at 4 p.m. Check next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register for the scores and stories from the playoff action.

BE/W 13, Truman 11

It was not their best game of the regular season, but the Blue Earth/Winnebago American Legion baseball team defeated Truman 13-11 in their last game before the beginning of the playoffs.

The game, played at Truman, saw both teams collect 10 hits.

BE/W got off to a good start in the game when they scored four runs in the top of the first inning.

Soren Fering led off the game with a single and stole second base. He moved to third on a single by Parker Meyers and scored on a single by Logan O’Hara.

With two outs and Meyers at third base and O’Hara at first, Abe Kokos singled to plate Meyers with BE/W’s second run of the game while O’Hara advanced to third base.

A double by Taylor Davids brought home both O’Hara and Kokos with the third and fourth runs of the inning.

Truman bounced back with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to cut BE/W’s lead to 4-2.

Each team scored one run in the second inning. BE/W added four more runs in the top of the third inning to move out to a 9-3 lead. However, Truman responded with three runs in their half of the third inning to make the score 9-6 in favor of BE/W.

Both teams continued to push runs across the plate with BE/W adding three more in the top of the fourth inning and Truman tallying three runs in the bottom of the fourth. After four complete innings, BE/W led 12-8.

Neither team scored in the fifth inning. BE/W added their final run of the game in the sixth inning while Truman pushed three more runs across home plate in the bottom of the sixth inning. With one inning to go, Truman had cut BE/W’s margin to two runs at 13-11.

BE/W did not score in the top of the seventh inning and Fering held Truman scoreless in the bottom of the inning to preserve the victory for BE/W.

Fering picked up the win after entering the game at the beginning of the third inning and going the rest of the way.

In five innings, he gave up five earned runs on six hits while walking three batters and striking out five.

O’Hara started the game and pitched one inning and allowed two runs. Noah Dahl pitched the second inning and gave up four runs.

Fering had three hits, including a triple, and four runs batted in. Kokos had two hits and drove in one run, Davids had one hit and three runs batted in while O’Hara had one hit and two runs batted in.

BE/W finished the regular season with a record of 7-0.