Legion splits doubleheader with Aberdeen

The offense was rolling, the defense was strong and Jacob Rice was pounding the strike zone.

A sweep looked to be in order the way the Mitchell Legion baseball team looked in the first half of its doubleheader against Aberdeen Tuesday at Cadwell Park in Mitchell.

Rice threw all five innings in a 12-2 mercy-rule victory, never walking a batter and picking up the victory. But Post 18 was sluggish at the plate early in the second game, falling 13-4 to split the twinbill.

“Our pitchers the second game didn’t do as good as our pitcher did the first game,” Mitchell coach Luke Norden said. “But you would have thought offensively our at-bats would have been equally as good as the first game.”

Post 18 scored six runs in the first inning of the opening game, highlighted by two-RBI doubles from Matt Larson and Kirby Fuerst and an RBI single from Derek Miller.

Mitchell (21-14) drew 10 walks in the win and had three batters hit by the pitch. Josh Schmidt and Miller each had bases-loaded RBI walks in the second inning and Larson had a bases-clearing, three-RBI double in the fifth that pushed Post 18’s lead to nine.

Larson scored in the next at-bat, when Michael Sadler singled up the middle for the final 10-run cushion to finish the game. Larson and Sadler each had a pair of hits and Miller and Fuerst each had a pair of RBIs.

Rice, a righthander who kept the ball low, struck out two Aberdeen batters and allowed five hits and two earned runs, one in the second and one in the fourth.

“He got himself out of a few jams and didn’t allow a big inning, which is what killed us the second game,” Norden said.

Mitchell pitchers issued 10 walks in the second game and also hit three Aberdeen batters. Lakin Neugebauer allowed three runs in three-plus innings. He walked seven, eventually took the loss and was pulled for Jared Schmidt.

Aberdeen got a bases-clearing triple in the top of the fourth off Schmidt to take a six-run advantage. Mitchell batters couldn’t figure out Aberdeen right-handed pitcher Josh Amdahl early. He struck out six of the first nine batters he faced, not allowing a run until the fourth inning.

Mitchell pulled within 6-3 in the fourth, getting an RBI single from Jared Schmidt, who later scored on a wild pitch. Post 18 added another run when Sadler worked the count for a bases-loaded walk to score Evan Mastel.

But Aberdeen sent 11 men to the plate and scored seven in the sixth inning for a 10-run lead. Sadler’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning pulled Mitchell within nine and kept the game alive for six more outs.

Schmidt went 2-for-3 with an RBI, Mastel had two hits, Sadler had two RBIs on one hit and Miller had a single in the seventh for Post 18’s six hits.

“Nine of their runs that scored got on by error, hit by pitch or walk,” said Norden, whose team plays in a tournament in Rochester, Minn., this weekend for its next action. “That was basically the ballgame.”

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