Lennox scores late for 3-1 win over Salem in second round

• Duxbury

(Luke Hagen/Republic) Salem left fielder Brian Duxbury fields a ball at his feet during a second-round game against Lennox Monday at Cadwell Park in Mitchell. Lennox won 3-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.

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Salem shortstop Logan Thune made some outstanding defensive plays Monday evening.

He was quick to admit his faults, too.

“I had a few errors that really hurt us,” Thune said after his team’s 3-1 loss to Lennox in the second round of the Class B state amateur baseball tournament at Cadwell Park. “They ended up getting base runners on after I made the errors, and they ended up scoring.”

Lennox, trailing 1-0 for most of the game, scored two in the seventh and one in the eighth to beat its Cornbelt League rivals and advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals.

In the top of the seventh, Thune’s error — a ground ball through his legs — allowed Lennox’s Travis Clark to score from second, knotting the game at 1. In the next at-bat, Justin Vietor had a sacrifice fly to center to give Lennox a one-run lead.

In the top of the eighth, Thune dropped a pop up in the infield that would have been the first out of the inning. Travis Clark, who earlier scored on Thune’s first error, had an RBI single to left for Salem’s third run of the night one batter later.

“When you score one run, you really have to play perfect defense,” Thune said.

Salem right-hander Cameron Kerkhove tossed all nine innings. He allowed six hits, three walks and no earned runs. He struck out four and threw 128 pitches.

Thune — who went 1-for-4 at the plate — backed up Kerkhove with nice defense in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. His best play came in the top of the sixth for the first out, tracking a ball deep in the hole and throwing out Lennox base runner Casey Vietor at first.

Kerkhove faced 12 batters through four innings and 19 batters through six.

“Cameron threw well enough to win this game,” Salem manager Roger Duxbury said. “ … Thune, what an outstanding athlete. He’s a great ballplayer. The only thing that beat us was the errors.”

Landon Peterson scored Salem’s lone run, coming in the fifth inning. He walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Darin Koch and scored on a hard-hit ball from Brian Duxbury. The ball hopped past Justin Vietor, Lennox’s shortstop.

Salem finished with five hits to Lennox’s six. Duxbury, Thune, Bucky Needles, Landon Peterson and Koch each had singles.

Clark had singles in his final two at-bats for the game’s only multiple-hit player. Drew Longman threw seven innings, picked up the win and allowed five hits. He walked three and struck out two. Rick Weber, a pickup player from Flandreau, pitched the final two innings for the save.

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