Midnight rainstorm delays thriller between Parkston Rock Bass, Flandreau

It looked as though the Parkston Rock Bass would be able to take care of Flandreau and come away with a win before the storm hit Wednesday night at Cadwell Park.

But in the bottom of the ninth inning with the wind blowing straight out into center field, Flandreau recorded four hits and took advantage of a key throwing error on shortstop Nate Harrington to get within two, 9-7, with the tying run on second and no outs before a rain delay was called at the Class B state amateur tournament at Cadwell Park.

When the print edition of The Daily Republic went to press Wednesday night, no decision had been made as to whether the game would be finished late Wednesday night or during the day today. But by 1 a.m., tournament officials had decided to postpone the game until 5:30 p.m. today.

Admission will not be charged for the resumption of the game, and the park will be cleared following its completion. Fans can then begin to pay for admission to the regularly scheduled night session.

At the time of the delay, Jared Boehmer was coming in to relieve Brady Nolz — who had thrown more than 165 pitches.

The Cardinals were down 9-3 heading into the bottom of the final inning, but Tanner Harris led off the inning with a single, Rick Weber walked and Erich Schlimgen singled to load the bases.

Chris Marek sent in the first run of the inning with an RBI single and Jake Kloos followed with a two-run double. Two more runs scored when Scott Johnson hit a grounder to Harrington, whose throw to first went over Spencer Freudenthal’s head on what should have been a routine groundout.

Johnson made it to second and Kloos was at third when the game was called due to rain and lightning.

Heading into the bottom of the ninth it looked like Parkston would have the game wrapped up before it started raining. It took a 3-1 lead in the third thanks to several Flandreau errors, but the Cardinals tied the game in the bottom of the inning on a two-run homer from Chris Marek.

Boehmer doubled and eventually stole home to put the Rock Bass up 4-3 in the fourth, and Parkston opened the game up in the sixth inning.

Billy Murtha struck out and James Boehmer grounded out to start the inning, but Tom Murtha singled, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Trevor Freudenthal. Freudenthal scored on an RBI triple by Nolz and Nolz scored on an error by the third baseman on a grounder by Lance Thury.

The Rock Bass added some insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Thury singled to start and Spencer Freudenthal walked. Both scored when Jared Boehmer tripled to deep right center and Billy Murtha grounded out to end the inning, leaving Parkston in what seemed like good position.

Nolz gave up seven runs off 11 hits and struck out nine before coming out with no outs in the ninth inning. He was also 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Jared Boehmer and Trevor Freudenthal were 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Tom Murtha was 3-for-5 to lead the Rock Bass offensively.

Johnson threw the first 5.2 innings for Flandreau. He gave up seven runs on 12 hits and struck out seven. Marek entered the game in the middle of the sixth and gave up two runs on three hits.

Marek was 3-for-5 with three RBIs to lead the Cardinals so far. Kloos was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Harris was 2-for-5.

The winner of the game is set to play Dell Rapids PBR, which beat Dimock/Emery 9-5 earlier Wednesday night, in a quarterfinal game at 8 p.m. Friday.

Tags: our towns, 2009 state amateur baseball tournament, amateur baseball, rock bass, sports, parkston, flandreau