Post 18 loses in semifinals in Rochester, Minn., tournament

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Mitchell Legion baseball team won a pair of Saturday games to advance and lose in Sunday’s semifinals in a tournament at Rochester, Minn., over the weekend.

Mitchell beat St. Paul Park 2-1 and the Rochester Red Hawks 9-7 Saturday before falling to a team from Calgary, Canada, 8-7 in walk-off fashion Sunday morning.

“The guys have a done a great job in tournaments this year and helping us get to the final day,” Mitchell coach Luke Norden said. “It was great to get a chance to play on the last day again.”

Evan Mastel threw a complete-game four-hitter against St. Paul Park. He didn’t strike out any batters and walked two.

“Evan ended up throwing 71 pitches through seven innings,” Norden said. “It was a real quick game. I think it was a game that took one hour and 15 minutes.”

Offensively, Jared Schmidt was 3-for-3 with a triple and he scored both of Mitchell’s runs. Josh Schmidt had two RBIs and a single. Derek Miller and Seth Cavanaugh each added a hit.

Matt Larson earned the win against Rochester, throwing five innings and allowing six runs. He struck out four and allowed seven hits. Cavanaugh pitched the final two innings for the save. He allowed one run, three hits and struck out one.

At the plate, Lakin Neugebauer was 1-for-2 and scored three runs, Josh Schmidt was 2-for-3 with three RBIs and Larson was 2-for-4 with an RBI.

“I thought we were really patient at the plate, and we did a nice job scoring some runs,” Norden said.

Mitchell led 7-0 against Calgary in the semifinals, scoring all of the runs in the second inning. Post 18 gave up two runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Mitchell was leading by one going into the seventh inning, when Calgary scored two runs with two out for a walk-off win.

Post 18’s Kirby Fuerst pitched a complete game, allowing seven runs, striking out five and giving up nine hits.

Josh Schmidt was 3-for-3 with two RBIs for Mitchell, which finished with five hits.

“The guys were really disappointed to drop the lead and lose,” Norden said.

Mitchell (24-15) hosts Sioux Falls East in a doubleheader starting 5 p.m. Tuesday at Cadwell Park in Mitchell.

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