This is a busy weekend for teams in the First Nite and Gopher leagues. Six teams are playing two games this weekend, with four of them playing two on Sunday. Ruthton and Pipestone play one game each day.
Jackson and Lakefield are both playing one seven-inning game Sunday. The Bulls will host Milroy at 2 p.m. at Wacker Field and then the Irish will make their way to Lakefield to play the Frogs at about 4:30 at Stan King Field.
There’s one undefeated team in each league in the region.
Fairmont leads the First Nite League with a 5-0 record, with Luverne on top in the Gopher League at 4-0.
Standings
First Nite League
Fairmont Martins 5-0
Jackson Bulls 4-1
Lakefield Frogs 3-3
Windom Pirates 2-3
Fox Lake Foxes 2-4
Heron Lake Lakers 1-3
Mountain Lake Lakers 1-4
Gopher League
Luverne Redbirds 4-0
Milroy Irish 4-1
Worthington Cubs 3-3
Hadley Buttermakers 1-2
Ruthton Royals 1-3
Pipestone A's 0-4
Saturday, June 3
Ruthton 6, Pipestone 5
Sunday, June 4
Milroy Irish at Jackson, 2 p.m.
Heron Lake at Ruthton, 2 p.m.
Hadley at Fox Lake, 2 p.m.
Windom at Worthington, 2 p.m.
Milroy Irish at Lakefield, 4:30 p.m.
Heron Lake at Pipestone, 4:30 p.m.
Mountain Lake at Worthington, 4:30 p.m.
Hadley at Fairmont, 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 7
Fox Lake at Jackson, 7:30 p.m.
Fairmont at Windom, 7:30 p.m.
Luverne at Worthington, 7:30 p.m.
Milroy Irish at Pipestone, 7:30 p.m.
Hadley at Marshall, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 10
Dawson at Pipestone, 6 p.m.
Jackson Legion opens Monday
The Jackson American Legion Post 130 baseball team will open its season Monday at Wacker Field vs. Springfield.
It will be a doubleheader with a Junior Legion game at 6 p.m., followed by the Legion game. Both are scheduled for six innings.
Games are played on Mondays and Thursdays in June and Post 130 will also play in a tournament in Luverne next weekend, playing three games and maybe a fourth if it reaches the championship game.
The Sub-District B tourney is July 7-9 in Springfield.
Joining the Tarantulas and host Springfield will be Sleepy Eye and Wabasso. Two teams will advance to the Southwest Sub-State tournament.
The schedule follows. For the games vs. Springfield, the first game of the doubleheader will be a Junior Legion game.
Monday, June 5: Springfield (2), 6 p.m.
Thursday, June 8: at Heron Lake-Okabena, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, June 9: Baltic at Luverne HS South, 5 p.m.
Saturday, June 10: Tea at Luverne Redbird, 10 a.m.
Saturday, June 10: Worthington at Luverrne HS South, 2 p.m.
Monday, June 12: at Wabasso
Thursday, June 15: Windom (2), 6 p.m.
Monday, June 19: at Springfield (2), 6 p.m.
Thursday, June 22: Heron Lake-Okabena, 6:30 p.m.
Monday, June 26: Worthington (2), 6 p.m.
Thursday, June 29: Wabasso
Friday, July 7: Sub-District at Springfield
Saturday, July 8: Sub-District at Springfield
Sunday, July 9: Sub-District at Springfield
Becker homers
Fairmont graduate Luke Becker homered last night as the Frederick, Maryland Atlantic League baseball team was a 9-7 winner over the York Revolution.
The team was created last November. The team held a name-the-team contest in January and February, with the final team name to be unveiled on June 23.
Until then, the team's hats and jerseys feature question marks in place of a name as you can see in this tweet from the team’s first win:
In 32 games Becker is hitting .254 with 30 hits in 118 at bats. He has five doubles, one triple and five home runs and has scored 24 runs. Becker has 10 runs batted in and has walked 26.
Frederick has an 11-22 record on the season. After one more game vs. York Sunday, they open a series with the Long Island Ducks.
Lew Ford is the hitting coach and player for the Ducks. He played with the Twins from 2003-2007.
Wally Backman, who spent 14 years in the majors including playing with the World Series champion New York Mets in 1986 and with the Twins in 1989, is the manager. He also played with the Pirates, Phillies and Mariners.
Former Cardinals honored
A pair of Fairmont High School graduates who were freshmen at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) have been named to the all-Iowa Community College Athletic Conference Division II baseball all-region team.
Pitcher Jacob Crissinger was a second-team all-region selection as a pitcher and outfielder Eli Anderson was an honorable mention selection.
Crissinger, a right-handed reliever, was 4-0 in league games with seven strikeouts and four walks. He appeared in 12 games and did not allow an earned run in 14 innings.
Anderson hit .326 with seven doubles and three triples.
This summer, Anderson is playing with the Maunesha River Rats of the Dairyland Collegiate League.
They opened their season Friday with a 6-3 loss to the Johnson Creek (Wis.) Mapaches. Anderson went 0-3 officially but walked twice and scored a run.
Maunesha plays its home opener tonight in Waterloo vs. the Wisconsin Cheese Kings.