Blue Earth/Winnebago Legion baseball pitcher Caleb Langager, pictured above, picked up the win in relief of Taylor Davids in the BE/W’s 4-3 walk-off win against Maple River in the first round of the playoffs. Langager did not allow a run in three innings of work.

The Blue Earth/Winnebago Legion baseball team won their opening game of the playoffs in dramatic fashion with a 4-3 walk-off victory over Maple River at Veterans Field in Blue Earth on Monday, July 8.

With the score tied 3-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, BE/W loaded the bases with one out when Peyton O’Hara was hit by a pitch, Noah Dahl walked and Matthew Klabunde reached base via a bunt single.

Maple River recorded their second out of the inning when Noah Barnett hit a grounder to Maple River’s first baseman who threw to the catcher to force out O’Hara at home.

With the bases still loaded, Branson Hauskins came to the plate for BE/W. After working the count to two balls and two strikes, Hauskins watched the next two pitches miss the strike zone. Hauskin’s base on balls forced in Dahl from third base with the winning run.

Maple River scored twice in the top of the first inning and added another run in the top of the fourth to take a 3-0 lead.

BE/W got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning when Caleb Langager led off the inning with a walk, stole second base and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Carter Rosenau. One out later, a single to right field by O’Hara cut Maple River’s lead to 3-1.

BE/W added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie the game at 3-3. With one out, Barnett was hit by a pitch. He stole second before Maple River recorded a strikeout for the second out of the inning. Walks to Braydon Rhey and Langager loaded the bases.

Another walk, this time to Rosenau, allowed Barnett to score and kept the bases full with Rhey on third base, Langager on second and Rosenau on first. With Taylor Davids at the plate, a pitch got past the catcher for a passed ball and Rhey sprinted home to tie the score at 3-3.

BE/W held Maple River scoreless in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to set up their game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning.

On paper, it looked like Maple River should have won the game,. They outhit BE/W by a 12-4 margin and only committed one error while BE/W committed three.

BE/W batters were walked 11 times by Maple River pitchers. Maple River pitchers also hit six BE/W batters which helped the home team manufacture their four runs.

The four players for BE/W who got hits were O’Hara, Dahl, Klabunde and Hauskins.

Davids started on the mound for BE/W and worked five complete innings. He was charged with three earned runs on nine hits. He walked two batters and struck out five.

Langager picked up the win in relief by pitching three innings of scoreless baseball. He gave up three hits, walked two batters and struck out three.