MITCHELL — Three days off did little to calm the Larchwood, Iowa, hitters and remained in top form at Sunday’s Class B amateur baseball tournament.
Building on an 18-run first-round win, Larchwood scored in every frame to secure its second run-rule victory in as many tournament games with a 16-6 win in seven innings over Wessington Springs in the second round at Cadwell Park.
Larchwood is in the quarterfinals for the second year in a row and the third time in four years and will face the winner of Sunday night’s second round match between Dimock/Emery and Castlewood at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Larchwood, facing Pony Hills League opponents for the second consecutive year, picked up where it left off in Wednesday’s first-round win over Burke, 18-3, scoring four runs in the first inning, two in the second and three in the third to take a 9-0 lead.
Facing a large early deficit, Trevor Kenobbie hit a solo shot over the left-field fence in the fourth inning to put the Owls on the scoreboard. But Larchwood continued to perform well at the plate, answering with three runs in the bottom half of the inning and another run in the fifth.
Springs fought back in the sixth inning with a four-run rally, sparked by an infield single by Plankinton freshman Tom Stange that scored Blake Larson. Kenobbie then came in and scored on an RBI fielder’s choice groundout by Terrek Butterfield. But the biggest hit of the sequence belonged to Camden Jost, who smacked a two-out, two-RBI single down the right field line, bringing home Butterfield and Isaac Kolousek to make it 13-5.
Landon Dierks/Mitchell Republic
Although Larchwood added a run in the sixth inning, Springs appeared to continue its ascent into the game when Kenobbie hit down the left field line to score Larson and put two runners in scoring position with no outs in the seventh inning. However, Larchwood retired three batters in a row to eliminate the threat and promptly added two runs in the second half of the inning to end the game early under the 10-run rule.
Eight Diamonds hitters hit multiple bases in the game, led by Keaton Grevengoed and Josh Van Beek, who contributed three RBIs, as did Micah Linn. Isaac Horigan went four innings in one start, striking out three players and allowing two hits, zero walks and one run, but it was Korey McKenney who got the win after getting five outs in relief.
Kenobbie finished with three hits, two RBIs and two runs scored, while Larson added two hits, a walk and two runs scored to lead the Springs offense. Mason Schelske took the loss of pitching for the Owls after going 1 2/3 innings in his start, allowing one strikeout, six hits, two walks and six runs (five earned).
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