Squirrels continue back-to-back regional title quest Saturday in North Dakota

DICKINSON, N.D. - The success continued for the Charleston Fighting Squirrels Friday at the Senior Babe Ruth Midwest Plains Regional in Dickinson, North Dakota.

Charleston, which blistered Holyoke, Colorado, 11-1 in six innings Thursday, improved to 2-0 in Pool B with a 3-1 victory against Eden Prairie Black, Minnesota, Friday afternoon.

Cody Payne, a Chaffee graduate, collected his second straight complete-game victory of the 2014 postseason. Payne limited the Eden Prairie offense to three hits in seven innings of work. He allowed one run, struck out 10 and walked two in a 90-pitch outing.

"It was another incredible game," Charleston coach Michael Minner said. "Cody Payne was excellent. He mixed up three or four pitches and threw them for strikes. He got ahead all day and pitched out of a few jams. We made a few errors defensively, but we did some good baseball things."

Charleston calculated a single run in the top of the third, fourth and fifth innings to reach its three-run total.

"We were just good enough offensively," Minner said. "It was another good team win."

Brad Potts, a Dexter graduate, collected a leadoff triple in the top of the third inning and later scored on a sacrifice fly to centerfield off of the bat of Bloomfield graduate Tim Fox.

Matt Ulrich reached base on a two-out single in the top of the fourth inning. Jason Mattison, a Dexter talent, followed with a two-out double to right field that scored Ulrich.

Luke Haines, a Notre Dame talent, drew a two-out walk in the top of the fifth inning and scored on a two-out double by Charleston cleanup hitter Ryan Fortner.

"Our last two runs came with two outs," Minner said. "Those are baseball runs. That's how you win the big games whenever you are in a big tournament."

Eden Prairie tallied an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Eden Prairie stranded a runner at second base in the fifth inning and left runners on second and third in the sixth inning.

Payne retired all three hitters he faced in the seventh frame.

"Tim Fox made the play of the century on a ground ball to shortstop in the seventh inning," Minner said. "It was the best play I've ever seen live."

Potts finished 2 for 4 and Haines went 2 for 3.

Haines tallied a team-high three of his club's 20 quality at-bats.

Alex Beneke pitched the first six innings for Eden Prairie Black. He allowed six hits, walked three, and struck out three in an 87-pitch outing.

Jack Nelson pitched a scoreless top of the seventh for Eden Prairie. He allowed two hits.

Charleston is the only undefeated team in Pool B entering Saturday's final round of pool play. Eden Prairie Black is 1-1. Holyoke and host Dickinson were both 0-1 in pool play before the start of their head-to-head matchup late Friday night.

"We are going to go eat as a team and then go out and scout the final game Friday night," Minner said. "Dickinson is a dangerous team that put up nine runs offensively Thursday night. You don't know what they have pitching wise. They lost 10-9 last night against Eden Prairie. I know Dickinson has the capability to beat a good team.

"I think the Dickinson-Holyoke game will be a good offensive game Friday night," Minner continued. "Colorado is really good offensively and Dickinson scored nine runs last night. We would love to see Colorado win Friday so we know we've already locked up the one seed, but you just never know what will happen. So we'll go out and scout it and be ready for Saturday when it gets here."

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Editor's Update: Dickinson beat Holyoke 12-3 late Friday night. A box score on that game is available at the end of this story.

Pool play standings at the start of play on Saturday are available below:

POOL A STANDINGS

Oskaloosa (1-1)j

Lyons (1-1)

Fargo (1-1)

Eden Prairie Red (1-1)

POOL B STANDINGS

Charleston (2-0)

Eden Prairie Black (1-1)

Dickinson (1-1)

Holyoke (0-2)

Note: The top two finishers in each pool advance to a single-elimination four-team championship bracket.

SATURDAY, JULY 26

Eden Prairie Red vs. Oskaloosa, 1 p.m.

Holyoke vs. Eden Prairie Black, 3:30 p.m.

Lyons vs. Fargo, 6 p.m.

Charleston vs. Dickinson, 8:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, JULY 27 (BRACKET PLAY)

Game 1: No. 2 Pool B vs. No. 1 Pool A, 1 p.m.

Game 2: No. 1 Pool B vs. No. 2 Pool A, 3:30 p.m.

Game 3 (championship): WInner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 8:30 p.m.

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FRIDAY'S RESULTS

Charleston 3, Eden Prairie Black 1

CHRL 001 110 0 - 3 8 4

EDNP 000 100 0 - 1 3 1

WP - Cody Payne. LP - Alex Beneke. 3B - Brad Potts (C). 2B - Jason Mattison (C), Ryan Fortner (C). Multiple hits - Charleston: Potts 2-4, Luke Haines 2-3.

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Lyons 5, Eden Prairie Red 1

DICKINSON, N.D. - Lyons, Kansas, calculated five unanswered runs after falling behind 1-0 as it secured a 5-1 win against Eden Prairie Red, Minnesota, in Game 5 of the Midwest Plains Regional Friday afternoon.

Grant Harvey earned a complete-game victory for Lyons. He limited the Eden Prairie offense to one run on five hits in seven innings of work. He struck out five and walked two in an 85-pitch outing.

An RBI single by Kerrick Schindler in the top of the first inning accounted for Eden Prairie's only run.

An RBI single by Tevin Renken in the bottom of the first inning tied things up at 1-1.

Lyon took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Kyle Cox reached base on a leadoff single, moved up a base on a ground out and took third base and home on stolen bases.

Lyons padded its lead to the final score with three straight two-out hits in the bottom of the fourth inning. McClure had an RBI double in the fifth and Renke followed with an RBI single. Renken scored later in the frame on an infield error.

McClure finished 2 for 3. Renken went 2 for 4 with a team-high two RBIs.

Jake Buchman calculated three of Lyons' 11 stolen bases.

Brady Cramer pitched the first four innings for Eden Prairie. He allowed five runs, seven hits, walked two and struckout two. He threw 68 pitches.

Matt Lindell did not allow a run or hit in two innings of relief work for Eden Prairie. He threw 34 pitches.

Lyons 5, Eden Prairie Red 1

EDNP 100 000 0 - 1 5 2

LYNS 110 300 x - 5 7 1

WP - Grant Harvey. LP - Brady Cramer. 2B - Ryan McClure 2 (L), Sam Pawlik (EP). Multiple hits - Lyons: McClure 2-3, Tevin Renken 2-4.

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Fargo 10, Oskaloosa 6

Fargo, North Dakota, powered its way past Oskaloosa, Iowa, 10-6 in eight innings in Game 7 of the Senior Babe Ruth Midwest Plains Regional Friday evening.

Fargo overcame a 3-1 deficit with four runs in the top of the fourth inning. Oskaloosa moved back ahead 6-5 with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Fargo tallied a run in the seventh to extend the game and scored four more times in the eighth to secure an extra-inning victory.

Andrew Grieve put together a stellar performance at the plate and collected a complete-game victory on the hill.

Grieve finished 2 for 4 with three runs scored. He tied the game at 6-6 in the top of the seventh inning when he reached home plate on a stolen base.

Grieve allowed only three earned runs in eight innings of work on the rubber. He surrendered six hits, walked one and struck out seven in a 108-pitch performance.

Skyler Purdy walked the first two Fargo hitters he faced to put runners at first and second with nobody out in the top of the eighth frame. Brad Nelson moved the runners to second and third when he put down a sacrifice bunt for the first out. Nathan Demarais followed with an RBI single to left field to put Fargo on top 7-6.

Fargo added three additional runs before the top of the eighth ended following two Oskaloosa errors.

Grieve retired all three hitters he faced in the bottom of the eighth.

Nick Rutledge started the game for Oskaloosa. He allowed five runs in 3.2 innings pitched. Mitchell Schaffner allowed one run in 3.1 innings of work, Travis Gile pitched 2/3 of an inning without allowing a run and Purdy allowed four runs in 1/3 of an inning of work.

Schaffner and Trent Roose both had a pair of RBIs for Oskaloosa.

Nelson finished 2 for 3 with a game-high three RBIs.

Five other Fargo players tallied one RBI.

Fargo 10, Oskaloosa 6

FRGN 001 400 14 - 10 8 2

OSKL 102 030 00 - 6 6 2

WP - Andrew Grieve. LP - Skyler Purdy. 3B - Trent Roose (O). 2B - Ben Koppinger (F), Nate Van Veldulzen (O). Multiple hits - Fargo: Brad Nelson 2-3, Grieve 2-4; Oskaloosa: Van Veldulzen 2-3.

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Dickinson 12, Holyoke 3

The offensive success continued for host Dickinson Friday night in Game 8 of the Midwest Plains Regional.

A night after tallying nine runs in a 10-9 loss to Eden Prairie Black Dickinson crushed Holyoke 12-3 to remain in contention to advance to Sunday's bracket-play portion of the tournament.

Shawn Steffan had a double and two RBIs, Tanner Quellette had a single and two RBIs, Ben Kramer had an RBI double and Cameron Jorda had an RBI single for Dickinson.

Zach Spencer and Ryan Nolin each had an RBI single for Holyoke.

Quellette pitched the first six innings. He allowed six hits, struck out six, walked three and threw 89 pitchers.

Hunter Schatz pitched a scoreless seventh for Dickinson. He did not allow a hit.

Dickinson tallied 26 quality at-bats. Holyoke had 11 quality at-bats.

Holyoke used three pitchers for at least two innings each. Eight of the 12 runs the Holyoke pitching staff allowed were earned.

Dickinson 12, Holyoke 3

DCKN 060 022 2 -- 12 6 0

HLYK 101 010 0 -- 3 6 3

WP -- Tanner Quellette. LP -- Chance Dunker. 2B -- Shawn Steffan (D), Sam England (D), Benson Kramer (D). Multiple hits -- Dickinson: Kramer 2-3.